When are you Mature Enough to be a Leader?
Through a recent Executive Coaching intervention, I’ve been introduced to a group of pissed-off individuals [...]
From Learning to Accomplishment: 7 steps
When we’re wanting to change aspects of our personality or learn a new skill or new way of being, the task can seem daunting. Here is a lovely concept of consecutive modes of practice— an elegant 7 step process describing the evolution from learning to accomplishment. The idea is B.K.S. Iyengar’s—Master Yoga Teacher. Although Mr Iyengar designed the 7 steps to define our journey of mastery in yoga postures, it aptly relates to all learning processes; […]
Discussing the Undiscussables
“Will you share your concern at the next EXCO meeting?”, I ask my client. He looks horrified, “No. This is a taboo subject around here and being the one to raise it again will leave me at risk and unpopular”. But how will you learn from it, I ask? My client is experiencing what many people experience in many organizations— a significant barrier to team learning; the existence of topics that are “undiscussables”. In exploring a process to assist my client and his team to ‘come clean’ with one another, I turned to The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (Senge, Ross, Smith, Roberts and Kleiner). If you or your team are in a similar situation, this exercise can help (and I highly recommend an external facilitator); […]
The Authentic leadership Paradox Wheel
I am currently in coaching relationships with a number of leaders who need to make a shift from operational leadership to strategic leadership. This requires some paradigms shifts, to move from the place of working “in” the business, to working “on” the business. It’s a real challenge to take a hands-off approach when you are so familiar with a hands-on approach. I like to offer my clients different leadership perspectives that might help them to articulate and start to practice their leadership in a new way. One of the tools that has has been helpful in this process is The Authentic Leadership Paradox Wheel. […]
Skills, Performance, Development or Free Agenda Coaching?
Coaching is a valuable adjunct to most leader's performance. A highly personalized learning process, it [...]
What is REALLY VALUABLE to YOU?
If we want the deepest level of life fulfillment, we can achieve it in only one way: by deciding upon what we value most in our life, what our highest values are, and then committing to live by them every single day. If you and I are not clear about what’s important in our lives—what we truly stand for—then how can we ever expect to lay the foundation for a sense of self- esteem, much less have the capacity to make effective decisions? […]
The Real-Time Benefit of an Accountability Partner
We're 10 minutes into our coaching session and there's an urgent knock at the door. [...]
There are many paths
A friend reminded me this morning of Carlos Casteneda, and how much I admire his work. This reminder sent me looking for an article that I wrote for my newsletter in 2007, when I was engrossed in Danah Zohar’s book; Connecting with our Spiritual Intelligence. At that time, I was grappling with the notion of choosing one path (career-wise, spiritually, intellectually) when I have an intense desire, paradoxically, to be on many paths simultaneously. The article is nothing more than a re-quote of Zohar’s words, and it still rings true to me today. How does it resonate with you?; […]
Brand Blisters? Take a brand break!
What are brand blisters? Here is a personal experience to clarify this very real symptom of continuous hard work throughout the year. This week I sent the same proposal to a client three times. After receiving the first proposal he returned it to me asking me to correct the date, which I then duly did. He returned the second copy and again the date was wrong! And, if you can believe it, the third also needed a date correction. I apologised profusely, but he was very kind about it, saying, ‘Hey, that’s just end-of-year blisters’. […]
Give your Brand Personality!
When it comes to someone’s work ethic, most of us are familiar with the phrase “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” but this can also be applied to personal branding. Personal branding needs to be just that; personal. If all we ever do when we network, meet people or share status updates, is speak about business, we render ourselves flat. It could be said that “all work and no play makes Jack a dull brand” too. […]
13 Tips to Starting your own Business
Sometimes I need a good kick in the behind to get a blog post up. This one is thanks to People Magazine who have asked me to contribute to the January 2012 edition with some tips on starting your own business. I’m not convinced that people Magazine readers are my ideal target market (never be too hasty, I hear you say), and the tips, as I see them, apply to all aspirant entrepreneurs. They asked for 12 and I couldn’t help including 13 (for luck!). So here they are, ala Michelle; 13 Tips to Starting your own business in 2012; […]