The Leadership "Bug" That’s Highly Resistant to Treatment

Posted on January 31, 2011 by pdncoach

It’s a tenacious little virus that can effect anyone from time to time, but it is especially harmful to leaders, or anyone who aspires to grow their influence.  And this bug is highly resistant to treatment. In her new book, due to be released in the U.S. in March, author Margaret Heffernan calls it the Number 1 Leadership Problem. 

Willful Blindness is when we see what we want to see and manage to ignore whatever makes us uncomfortable or challenges our most cherished beliefs.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=msturgell&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0802719988&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrIs it the reason why so many executives – people already in top positions – demand an executive coach as part of their benefits package.  It is the reason why so many leaders experience persistent challenges with their teams, organizations, customers, and product and service lines.

Successful leaders learn from experience that even their highly refined ability to see what is needed is limited by their own assumptions and beliefs. The same is true for all of us, regardless of status or position.

Most people know themselves pretty well and are able to make decisions and set goals based on who they are. Well, at least most people do this much of the time – ah, there lies the rub. The problem is we all use our own assumptions and beliefs to make decisions. These are driven by motivations that are often outside our own realm of awareness. Sometimes our assumptions and beliefs are empowering. Sometimes they are limiting, faulty or out of date and we rarely take time or know how to truly explore and update them.

No one knows you or your business better than YOU. Yet sometimes your attitudes and beliefs limit the potential benefits from what you know. A good coach helps you see what you’re not already seeing. A good coach asks you questions that you cannot always answer right away, questions that require hard thinking, questions that test your assumptions, reveal possibilities and lead to right action that you might not otherwise have conceived. That’s why the most successful people work with coaches.

Join me at the Intersection of Purpose & Now.
Posted in assumptions, attitude, coaching, leadership, Margaret Hefferman, willful blindness | Leave a comment

The Handoff Checklist

Posted on January 28, 2011 by pdncoach

Change initiatives and strategic plans all-too-often fail to be implemented simply because corporate vision fails to become part of the daily attitudes, behaviors and habits of the many people who must execute the plan. Consider developing your own “Handoff Checklist” as a basic but powerful tool to enhance your organization’s ability to execute – and put your hard-won plans into play.

“Time it takes to go through the checklist? One to five minutes. Time (and trust) saved by going through the checklist? Immeasurable.” 

Source: “The Secret to Ensuring Follow-Through” by Peter Bregman, Harvard Business Review, January 25, 2011. Bregman applies the concept that “a team is only as strong as its checklist” in surgeon/author Atul Gawande’s book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right.

Bregman also offers a sample list of questions that the person handing off work must ask the person taking accountability for delivery:

Handoff Checklist

  • What do you understand the priorities to be?
  • What concerns or ideas do you have that have not already been mentioned?
  • What are your key next steps, and by when do you plan to accomplish them?
  • What do you need from me in order to be successful?
  • Are there any key contingencies we should plan for now?
  • When will we next check-in on progress/issues?
  • Who else needs to know our plans, and how will we communicate them?

This article goes on to briefly explain how standardizing behaviors, such as creating a checklist that everyone must follow, eliminates the need for individual courage from the right people to take the right actions, at the right time, for the right reason, to achieve the right results.

Something as simple as your own shared Handoff Checklist can reduce or eliminate the gap between vision and execution.  

If you would like to receive a copy of my original white paper on closing the gap that exists between corporate strategy and the daily work performed on the front lines, called Leadership on the Front Line, send your request to askthecoach@pdncoach.com. ***Include “Leadership on the Front Line white paper request” in the subject line.

Managers are the linchpins connecting the daily actions of a workforce with corporate vision. Yet most companies complain about the gap that exists between corporate strategy and the daily work performed on the front lines. In response, company vision, values and goals are hung on the walls; HR beefs up training and everyone hopes for the best. Yet the gap remains. Why? Leadership on the Front Line provides a model and direction for putting your organization at The Intersection of Purpose and Now.

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Join me at the Intersection of Purpose & Now.
Posted in change, execution, handoff checklist, implementation, strategy | Leave a comment

The 3 Rules That Shape My Business

Posted on January 25, 2011 by pdncoach

Three simple rules shape my work as a business coach:

  1. I must have permission to coach you. “Is it OK if…(I ask you a question)?”
  2. I NEVER tell anyone anything. I help them discover for themselves.
  3. Therefore, I ask questions. Big ones.

The major questions begin with:

    • “How is what you are doing now working for you?”
    • “How do you know?”
    • “What would you like to happen?”

The real kickers are:

    • “What do you want?”
    • “What is important?”
    • “Why?”
    • “What might keep you from making that happen?”
    • “What are you going to do about it?”

The better I get at my “Three Rules”, the better my business does, the more my clients and I arrive at The Intersection of Purpose & Now.

What shapes how you do business?  I would like to hear from you.

Join me at the Intersection of Purpose & Now.
Posted in coaching, goals, Purpose, questions, three rules | Leave a comment