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In my work I look for Outcomes, Patterns, and Norms/Beliefs. I use them to help organizations, teams, and leaders achieve their goals. By using them as a framework, we can discover what you want to achieve, what you are doing that is hindering you, and what underlying beliefs have prevented you from taking corrective action thus far.
Let’s break down the framework and look at each part in more detail. Because my coaching involves a lot of questions, you will see plenty here:
Outcomes
What outcomes are you producing or creating? Are there any outcomes that are not at the level you would like them to be? An example might be a leader who says, “I can’t find the time to get everything done.” This is a real example that is more common than you might think. When we identify an outcome that we want to improve, we can then look at what brings about that outcome: the patterns or processes.
Patterns
How do you accomplish your work? What are you doing that works, and what doesn’t? This can encompass other terms like processes, behaviours, or really any way of working. These patterns produce outcomes, and when you are not satisfied with an outcome, you need to change a pattern. Our time-starved leader says, “I double check all the work of my team; nothing leaves our work without me seeing it.” This leader is spending most of their time managing. It is a process that is eating up time, and not producing the desired outcomes. Changing a pattern usually means recognizing why the pattern exists in the first place.
Norms/Beliefs
Why does your process look like this? Why do you work the way you do? At the heart of your patterns are a set of norms or beliefs that help explain why you have those patterns. Our leader, might admit, “I don’t trust that the team will develop the work with the level of quality I believe is necessary,” or even, “I’m smarter than my team, and I have to check their work.” Again, these are real examples that come up more than you might think. Each demonstrate a lack of looking closely at outcomes and patterns and moving away from managing to leading.
So the framework is used to diagnose performance. From it, we can start to develop approaches to enhance performance. Many leaders easily recognize problems with outcomes, but have more difficulty finding the root of those problems in patterns, and norms/beliefs. Once we have identified these beliefs, we can start taking corrective action. In our example, a leader is having difficulty trusting his team. So we might ask our hypothetical leader: “What would need to be different for you to trust your team?” or “What can you do as a leader to help the person you are not sure of get to that place where you can trust them?”
The whole process of coaching is helping the individual gain insight into what is and isn’t working. We then develop strategies and actions, and create some measurement as to how to be accountable within these new strategies and actions. This process is about you finding the answers to solve your problems—not being told what to do. It’s about building self-reliance. I come to coaching with the belief that you have the answers to solve your problems. My job is to help you access them, and the framework helps us accomplish that goal.
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 David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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360 degree reviews are a kind of performance review that provide multiple levels of feedback—from supervisors, peers, subordinates, and even sometimes clients and customers to an individual in an anonymous, constructive way. I recommend that if/when you use these reviews you do so with thoughtful caution as the following mistake can occur:
A common flaw in the implementation of 360 performance reviews is that leaders use the tool and the feedback collected to shape people into a mold. The 360 is set up based on a particular model of what we think the “ideal leader” should look like but…
Guess What?
Everybody’s different. When any type of review is applied without support or a clear understanding of how to interpret the data it tends to pressure individuals into that mold.
The Result?
You begin “renting behaviour”, rather than improving, growing, and developing the skills, competencies and behaviour that allow them to fully contribute to the business. Rented behaviour is how a person will act between 9:00 – 5:00, because they know these are the things to say and do to be successful in your organization. This rented behaviour stifles a person’s natural strengths, creativity, and personality, and will usually lead to lees than full engagement. If you do not understand your people, and their real strengths and weaknesses, you are not going to get the best out of them. What you want to develop and encourage are behaviours that are both authentic and aligned with your organization.
Understanding your people, and nurturing their strengths rather than trying to force fit them into how a good leader ought to look/act/think/perform is becoming more and more important as our multi-generational workforce grows. The baby-boomers were more willing to make compromises for job security. Their Gen-X and Millennial children are far less willing to make those same compromises. This isn’t because one generation is more or less lazy or more or less entitled. It is more about the values with which each generation was raised.
How Can a Coach Help?
When administering 360 performance reviews, consider hiring a coach to guide you through the process of using the feedback collected in a way that benefits you, your people, and your organization. A coach can help you both develop your best leaders during performance review time using the feedback from their peers, and also help you to make heads and tails of the feedback you have received about your own performance.
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David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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There is a significant difference between being a line manager and being the CEO, and the old adage rings trues: “It’s lonely at the top.” The loneliness itself results from the isolation of the position.
This isolation may have a variety of root causes:
- The leader may have risen through the ranks and is now in a position of supervising people who used to be peers.
- The leader cannot share information with their direct reports because many of the decisions directly affect these people.
- The Board of Directors looks to the leader for a recommendation or decision and is not always the best resource for the leader to debate ideas.
So As A Leader, What Can Be Done?
An external coach is needed, as he or she becomes the leader’s sounding board. In an objective way, the coach can dialogue about the challenges the leader is facing and give advice on how to approach those challenges. It is helpful for the coach to have had some senior leadership experience, to truly understand “both sides of the desk”.
Leaders must balance the short- and long-term needs of the organization. There is often a tension between short-term needs and the future vision for the organization. In fact, acting in the short-term may be in direct conflict with a long-term goal. For example, shuffling middle managers to ameliorate staffing issues in the short term may have to be undone if there is a long-term organizational change in the planning.
Consider a request to hire capability in a specific department within the organization, when the leader is looking at acquiring a new business or closing areas of the organization that cannot be discussed in the present. There is little point in talking with the transportation division about changes in shipping or acquiring a new fleet of trucks when the leader is contemplating outsourcing the whole shipping division to an outside source such as UPS
Stop Going It Alone!
Personnel issues are where a leader can feel most isolated. If the leader has concerns about the capability of members of their executive team, it would be unethical and a breach of trust to discuss this with anyone within the organization. This is where coaching at the leadership level can be most helpful and stress reducing. The coach/consultant can work with the leader to complete some strategic assessment of personnel before personnel changes are ever put in place.
- See more at: http://www.leadershipeffectiveness.net/effective-leadership/why-leadership-is-the-loneliest-role-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/#sthash.0kTWGusW.dpuf
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David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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The skills, abilities, behaviours, or competencies that get people promoted to leadership positions are typically not the same skills, abilities, behaviours, or competencies that will make them good leaders. This disconnect can cause stress, performance issues, and a bruised “executive reputation” if not recognized and addressed early on. Here are my recommendations for how you can make the transition from a manager to leader successfully:
1. Understand the Difference Between IQ & EQ
When you are promoted to a leadership role, your continued success will no longer be tied solely to your technical skills. Instead, Emotional Intelligence (EQ and sometimes EI), rather than Intelligence (IQ) becomes the determining factor for success. My colleague and friend Lynn Bennett says “IQ gets you hired, EQ gets you fired”. EQ refers to emotional and socials skills necessary to be successful in life.
If, for example, you have been promoted from a sales role to a role leading sales people, being a great sales person is no longer a sole contributor to your success. While it’s usually helpful that you be competent in sales that is not enough to make you great sales leader.
In this new role, if you do not move from being a great salesperson to a great sales leader what actually happens is that your team will perform at a sub-optimal level. Instead of inspiring, guiding, delegating, communicating, and cascading strategy, you end up trying to shape your people into carbon copies of your former self (and becoming very frustrated, overwhelmed, and unproductive in the meantime).
The combination of the necessary IQ and strong EQ are the perquisites of successful leadership. The good news as that while IQ is fixed early in life, EQ can be developed and strengthen throughout your life
2. Honestly Re-evaluate Your Skills & Abilities
- When making the transition to a leadership role, ask yourself:
- What is it that has helped me be successful?
- What do I need to do differently in this leadership position?
- Am I clear about my strengths and weaknesses?
- Am I willing to explore them?
- Can I accept that my work is less “hands-on” and what do I have to do so I can trust my team to do their work their way and be successful?
Be honest. Identify areas that you can quickly improve, determine areas that you are already very strong in, use your team to compensate for areas where you have larger gaps or weaknesses while you work on them.
3. Consider Hiring a Coach
When you make the move to a new leadership position, this can be the optimal time to engage an executive coach. The right coach can help you make sense of the answers to the questions above. He or she can help you determine what behaviours and habits you need to keep, and which you need to let go of. Coaching provides you with a safe space, a sounding board, and a mirror into which you can reflect, strategize and move forward confidently. Remember, a leader’s success rests not in technical ability (your people handle that), but in creating the environment in which your team will thrive.
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David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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Organizational change may instill fear and doubt in your people. Some may resist change efforts aggressively, others passive aggressively, while others may hop on board and be excited for what’s next to come. While every change in every organization is different, there are certain truths that apply to all organizational change management strategies.
Once your organizational change communications plan is rolling out and your employees begin to hear what the changes are and how they will personally be affected, leaders should be asking for feedback – both positive and negative.
These three questions will help your employees share actionable, specific feedback with you:
- What about the change(s) do you like or find exciting?
- What about the change(s) don’t you understand? What do you need more information about?
- What is it about the change that you don’t believe is possible?
The third question is the big one.
I recommend having follow up questions ready to shine more light on the doubts of select individuals. Look to learn what they are hearing that they don’t believe, to learn what in their experience says the changes won’t happen. They may have valid reasons to believe that leadership (you) don’t mean what you say – something that needs to be addressed clearly and quickly.
It’s very important that leaders be willing to:
- Explain what is not understood
- Discuss and address what people do not believe.
- Say “I don’t know” to questions you cannot answer.
If you are undergoing organizational change, and you do not know the answer to a question, it is probably a good question. It’s probably something you hadn’t thought about and now need to address. When you cannot answer a question right away, be sure to answer it later. For people who are unconvinced, ask: “What would you need to see, to make you believe it’s possible?”
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David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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There is not a mold for how great leaders ought to act, think, or speak. As such, it’s important not to impose one singular model or ideal of leadership because what makes one leader successful may not have the same result with another leader. While each great leader must define a leadership style that suits him/her best, in my experience, there are 4 attributes that I see all great leaders possessing:
- An ambition for the organization that is greater than their personal ambitions. These people believe in what their organization is trying to achieve. They have big vision for both themselves and their company’s next steps. This passion, ambition, and alignment is evident (and inspirational) to others.
- An openness to hear the truth, even when the truth is not what they want to hear. We all have blind spots and successful leaders are willing to hear the good and the bad. Only through a broader more complete understanding of what is happening can a leader provide clear direction.
- A willingness to be wrong. They must be willing to be challenged by their people, and be willing to accept when they make a mistake. This willingness to be “human” makes others more willing to follow.
- Self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses. There are leaders with many strengths and talents, but these truly great leaders understand their limitations and make plans to account for them.
It’s easy to be blind to your weaknesses; it’s easy to dismiss truths you don’t want to hear; it can be challenging to acquire and cultivate these four “great leader” attributes. But you can acquire and nurture them! Through education, coaching, or on-the-job experience subject matter experts can become good managers, and good managers can become great leaders.
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David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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Team coaching is a great way to improve team performance. People often ask me, “does team coaching work for every team?” and I answer, “mostly…” There are 3 conditions that must exist for team coaching to deliver the best results. Does this list describe your business reality?
1. Leader is Open and Committed to the Team Coaching Process
As the leader, you must be committed to, and fully supportive of the team coaching process. This includes participating in individual coaching concurrently with your team coaching sessions. If you are looking to sit back while the coach brings your team in line, it’s not going to work. As the leader, you have to be open to understanding the role each member of your team plays in affecting the team’s performance. You must be willing to explore their roles, ideas, challenges, and behaviours – be ready to have the difficult conversations and be willing to change and lead change. It’s not up to any one member to carry the team (not even you). However, if you are committed to improving your team’s performance through the coaching process, team coaching will work.
2. There is Something in the Way of Becoming a High Performance Team
It isn’t necessary for something in your meetings or team performance to be wrong. Actually, your team may seem harmonious, and may even be performing fine. However, you have the sense that the team could accomplish more than they currently are. There is something getting in the way of your team reaching its full potential. The effectiveness of your team is not at its peak—and you know because the sum total of their individual talents should add up to more. This is a good time for team coaching, so your team can start having the necessary conversations to improve.
3. Leader Must be Willing to Look Inward
Finally, team leaders must be open to examining how their behaviour influences the team. They need to be willing to reflect on their own performance and leadership style, considering how they might be hindering the team’s performance, and in what ways they are helping the team thrive. As the leader, you set the tone for your meetings, and small, often unconscious, actions on your part may be influencing how your team performs. Team coaching can help you recognize when something is or isn’t working, and help you build a team that performs at their optimal level.
The process of team coaching takes work, but it all happens in situ while your team is working toward its existing objectives. When teams and team leaders are open and committed to the team coaching process, and know that there is something keeping them from becoming a high performing team, the stage is set for team coaching to deliver real, lasting results.
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David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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I want to emphasize that zero minutes of your day will be “wasted” with team coaching. How is that possible? Well, whether your team coach is working with you individually or with you and your team, we are focused on the day-to-day business objectives of your organization. In regularly scheduled business meetings your coach helps the team become more effective by bringing awareness of your team dynamics and behaviours – both positive and negative – while you continue with your agenda. This is not an abstract workshop that you have to apply to your work—it is your work.
There is this perception, or concern, that team coaching is a waste of time. Some might see it as wishy-washy, feel good stuff, team building exercises, or a group therapy session. It’s not. It is actually about helping your team get better at achieving their mutual goals. It’s not about your team members liking each other, or even getting along; it’s about getting the job done. Everything we do is focused on that outcome. Using a permission-based model your coach observes the team’s norms, communication styles, productive and destructive behaviours, and offers suggestions and prompts for how to take note of these instances.
There is no prep time for team coaching. There is no homework. When we debrief at the end of a meeting, it’s all in the service of how what we do can help improve your team’s operations. We might ask: “How did that meeting move the agenda of the organization forward?” or “How did that meeting help the organization meet its goals?” Our model of team coaching does nothing but help your organization perform more effectively.
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David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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Recently, I was called in by a Deputy Minister in the Ontario Public Service and his assistant to support an organizational change initiative. It soon became apparent that what they thought they needed – traditional leadership development – was not going to be as effective as long-term team coaching. The coaching model would allow them to delve deeper into the critical dimensions of what made an effective team.
The work began with structured interviews with each team member. These assessments gave information about the team member as well as their perceptions of how well the team was doing. A picture began to emerge of strengths and areas for development. The interviews also gave the coach an opportunity to develop trust with each team member.
The team then participated in a two day off site training session. The findings from the interviews were shared and then the work began to have them identify critical areas that needed to be addressed and develop an action plan for change implementation. My role was observing how they worked through critical issues. These observations would form the backbone of the skill training that followed the retreat.
All of the development was done in the context of real work. I observed how they worked on a day-to-day basis noting where they were effective. Skill development areas were then identified, focusing on:
How to foster more collaborative relationships
How to use conflict in a productive way (Having discussions about difficult topics)
How to keep conversations meaningful and focussed (Avoiding circular conversations and knowing the purpose of the conversation before it begins)
Developing trust between team members (Increasing trust levels)
Choosing effective decision making models
The decision-making coaching was particularly interesting as team members learned when they needed to be part of the decision or when they could trust that other team members to make decisions on behalf of the whole team. I reminded them that it did not take team consensus to decide who would turn off the lights when leaving the room.
After the intensive off site coaching, the team was reconvened in weekly sessions of three hours. The coach attended every other session and in the intervening week spent an hour with the team leader helping him acquire the skills to be able to coach his own team post-engagement.
The process took nine months to complete and after that contracted time was finished, there is still continued communication with the team leader. A sign of both his commitment to continuing his own learning, and an acclamation of the relationship that had been established between us.
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David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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When executives are aligned your business moves forward quickly and effectively; if they are misaligned business can be slow and ineffective. Left too long, misalignment can lead to disaster. Here are two examples that illustrate my point: RIM and Apple.
Apple was once a struggling company, but with strong leadership, a successful transformational change and a revamped business model, they are now one of the most recognized organizations in the world. The direction of the company, shaped by Steve Jobs, was to focus on developing integrated, elegant solutions. The executive team was aligned with Jobs’ vision and strategy and operated accordingly through their day-to-day actions. The result: a consistently high quality, innovative product.
RIM (Research In Motion Ltd.) is another story. They virtually invented the smartphone and for a while BlackBerries were the business accessory. What happened? RIM was unable to respond to its competitors because of a fractured executive team. RIM had two CEOs who were not in sync. Mike Lazaridis was focused on getting a next generation BlackBerry to the public, while Jim Balsillie attempted to improve revenue by licensing some of RIM’s technology. Rather than rallying behind a common vision, RIM executives fell in line behind either Lazaridis or Balsillie — internal communication fell apart, and tensions rose. It was civil war. Today RIM has a new CEO, but the company may never be a leader again.
RIM had to descend into outright hostility before they changed direction. It’s not always easy to tell when executives are misaligned. Here are 3 warning signs that I commonly see:
- The business is not focused. There may not be conflict in meetings, but if executives are saying one thing and doing another, then the team is misaligned.
- Executives are blaming others and not being accountable for their actions.
- The team seems largely focused on what is urgent, rather than what is important.
As a CEO, ensuring that your executive team is working toward the same goals is essential to the success of your business. If you are already seeing signs of misalignment you may need training, coaching, team building or something more drastic, like a restructuring, to get these individuals back on track. If your team is working together well, be sure to communicate, communicate, communicate to ensure you stay on the right track.
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David Swain, BSc Mgmt., MSOD, CEC, PCC with over 30 years’ experience in both coaching the leaders of large organizations and leading them himself.
LinkedIn
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