31May

Do You Know Your Leadership Strengths? Here Is How To Find Out

Do you know your leadership strengths? Have you had that feeling when you know something isn’t quite right, but don’t know what it is? ? Many conversations that I have with current and potential leadership and coaching clients start like that – they know that there is something to work on, something doesn’t ‘feel’ quite right, but they don’t know quite what it is.
This is where the Institute of Management & Leadership Development CheckPoint comes into its own. It provides a solid foundation from which I, and they, can review their leadership strengths and weaknesses, and plan a leadership development strategy that is designed for them. It takes the guesswork out of leadership development, and provides a common language for both the coach and leader/manager.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/554557745


Do you know what your leadership strengths and weaknesses are? Do you know what impact that knowledge (or lack of) is having on your team and business?
If you would like to know what leadership strengths you can leverage further, get in touch to book in for a Velocity Leadership CheckPoint and debrief today.
#leadership #leadershipdevelopment #coaching #executivecoaching #success #leaders #management

24May

Practical Leadership Training Can Make All The Difference For a Leader

A well designed leadership training activity can be fun and challenging as well as meeting clear learning outcomes. In a recent unit of the Diploma of Leadership & Management (Manage Operational Plan), what looks like play is the culmination of an activity that required planning, communication, resource allocation, budgeting, trial, design, leadership, teamwork, assessment and review.

It was so much fun to work with the Geelong lyondellbasell crew last Friday in the Diploma of Leadership & Management module! When I was in the RAAF, and in particular at Officers’ Training School, I had the opportunity to see first hand how powerful experiential training could be in developing leadership and team skills for leaders and managers.

Practical Leadership Training Puts Theory In Practise

Practical Leadership Training Is Crucial for Leadership Development

The opportunity to observe, evaluate, debrief and learn in a practical way is easily transferred into real life settings. Leadership, team work, planning, communication, negotiation, resilience, patience, difficult conversations – all can be developed in a fun and challenging way with a well designed experiential learning activity. That said

‘An activity is only as good as the learning it provides for the participants’

With these types of experiential activities, the building and assembly of a waterslide is a vehicle for important debriefs on planning, teamwork and leadership.

Interestingly, the behaviours exhibited by leaders and teams in small activities like this often mirror the exact behaviours in the workplace, providing a great opportunity to evaluate norms and behaviours in real time and seek impacts and consequences in a safe environment.

Experiential activities are one of the many ways in which we challenge, coach, train, assessment and work with leaders and managers to develop their leadership and high-performance team skills.

We are forever grateful for the opportunity to work with some amazing leaders, managers and small business owners that seek to develop and challenge their leadership skills and those of their teams.

The Diploma of Leadership & Management

Would your team (or leadership team) challenge itself in an experiential setting to develop their high-performance team or leadership skills? Enquire today via our Contact page or book a Discovery Call to see if the Diploma of Leadership & management is the right fit for your business team.

#leadership #management #leadershipdevelopment #training #coaching #culture #teamwork #leaders #skills #IMLD #developingleaders

21May

Leadership Program – Alex Reynolds Testimonial

IMLDs leadership programs provide leaders with knowledge, behaviour and practical skills required to lead and adapt to a changing work environment. Irrespective of where you are staring from – brand new to leadership or s seasoned professional – IMLD leadership programs have something for you to continue your leadership development journey. From the Emerging Leaders Program, to the Executive Leadership Program and the Diploma of Leadership and Management, there is a leadership program designed to take your skills to the next level. If this sounds like it could be useful for you or members of your team, get in touch with us today.

20May

Your Best Leadership Coach – 7 Tips To Find The Right One For You

When choosing a leadership coach to work with, you want to make sure that you are going to get results! In an unregulated industry, it is very easy to get caught up in the hype of a savvy sales pitch or a professional looking website from a prospective coach. But there are some simple questions to ask that can differentiate the good from the average, the true partner in developing your skills as a leader as opposed to an expensive waste of time and effort. So we put together 7 tips to help you find your best leadership coach, most of which were also confirmed in a recent Forbes article.

During my first meeting or call with a potential client, I have found that most leaders don’t know what to ask to determine if I am the ‘right fit’ for them. Often they are looking for someone who they feel comfortable with and have the right chemistry. While that is certainly important, there are many other things you can ask to get the right leadership coach for you. Here are 7 key questions you can ask a potential coach to determine if they are effective and more importantly, the right coach for you.

1. What is Your Experience as a Leader? 

This might seem obvious, but many consultants calling themselves leadership coaches have actually never lead people in a team. For all of the learning and reading a person has done, nothing can substitute having experience in a leadership role – making decisions, counselling / coaching and performance managing team members, holding other accountable for results, setting a clear vision – all of the things that you have to do as a leader. Do you want someone who has learned from a book, or someone who has learned what works and what doesn’t from their own trials and experiences?

Ask:

  • ‘What experience have you had leading a team?’
  • ‘What industries have you worked in and for how long?’
  • ‘What was you toughest experience as a leader managing people?’

2. What is Your Own Coaching Style? 

Many leadership coaches follow a formula, a step-by-step guide to coaching that they have learned through an institute, school or other coach. Having a system or a process is important – but you don’t want to work with someone who can’t adjust their format / process / style to meet your immediate needs. If you want to work on a pressing issue that impacts you right now, you shouldn’t have to wait for Session 7 to discuss what you need right now.

In addition, have they developed their own lessons from experience? An effective coach has learnt from what they were taught, adapted from their experience and developed their own material. Would you rather work with a leadership coach that can adapt to your needs and discuss an appropriate lesson from personal experience, or someone that needs to refer and check with the book?

Ask:

  • ‘What models do you use to aid your coaching?’
  • ‘Can you outline the type of lessons / learning we can cover?’
  • ‘Have you written your own models / lessons from experience?’

Listen to how they discuss their work and consider the following questions for yourself:

  • ‘Does this sound like it will aid in my development as a leader?’
  • ‘Will this person’s style compliment my own’
Executive Coaches Actively Listen
Effective Leadership Coaches Have Developed Their Own Coaching Style

3. Who Else Would You Recommend?

Deciding on an effective leadership coach is a personal preference – you have to feel comfortable that the person will work with you, guide you, encourage you as well as challenge you. If you decide that the persons style doesn’t suit you, can they / will they recommend a leadership coach more suitable? An effective leadership coach knows that they don’t appeal to everyones style and that fit is important. An effective coach in the industry will personally know several other effective leadership coaches of different styles that they can refer you to. Anyone that can’t is looking more for the sale and less for your welfare and development.

Ask:

  • ‘If you aren’t my best fit as a coach, who else would you recommend and why?’

4. What Recommendations and Success Stories Do You Have?

This question seeks to get past the fancy website and the sales pitch. An effective leadership coach will have many recommendations from previous clients that are happy with the work that was completed, and even happier to tell others about it. Look to the person’s website for testimonials and see what they have said about the process, where they started and what they learned. Look up some of the testimonial names on LinkedIn – are they real people in leadership roles? Do they work for the person ? (I know, yet several coaches I sought for myself had a small number of reviews, and those were from peers, not clients). Look up the reviews of the business as well as the leadership coach on Facebook, Google reviews and alike – can you find recommendations?

If the person doesn’t have 20 or 30 clear and identifiable recommendations or reviews, they haven’t yet proven themselves as an effective leadership coach. It is also important to separate the leadership coach from the leadership business – while the business may have many reviews for their stable of coaches, the one in front of you may not. Also ask if you could speak to a previous client about what they got from the coaching process. There is nothing wrong with this! An effective leadership coach will not only be able to provide you with names, they will have at least 5 clients they could willingly provide you the phone / contact details of to discuss their coaching. 

To be safe (and sure):

  • Check their website or LinkedIn profile for 20 to 30 recommendations and reviews
  • Check reviews and people giving them are real and not from their own business
  • Separate the reviews of the business from the specific coach

Ask:

  • ‘Can I speak to one or two of your previous clients to discuss what they learnt?’

5. What Resources and Tools Do You Have at Your Disposal?

This is a broad question, and it is seeking to understand the depth of knowledge of the leadership coach you will be working with. An effective leadership coach talks about their field of expertise – either publicly in keynote speaking or webinars, online through videos or tutorials, or written in blogs / posts and articles. Take some time to read, listen or watch what they talk about and see if it resonates with you. Does this person talk about leadership / leadership skills in a way that appeals to you? If you can’t find your chosen leadership coach speaking about the topic of leadership in at least one of these mediums, walk away. Effective leadership coaches have a body of work that should be easy to find and demonstrate their understanding of the topic.

In addition, ask to review or discuss their coaching outcomes documents and their confidentiality policy – it should be clear and easily understood. You want to know before you undertake a coaching process who the information you discuss is going to be shared with, how long notes are kept and what the records process entails.

Review:

  • Their website for articles, tutorials and videos
  • Look for Youtube or Vimeo videos speaking on the topic
  • ‘Google’ their name and search for things like ‘leadership articles’

Ask:

  • ‘Where can I find articles or videos of you discussing and explaining leadership and / or coaching?’
  • ‘Can I have a copy of your Coaching Outcomes documents?’
  • ‘What is your policy on confidentiality’

6. What Leadership Assessment Tool Do They Use?

An effective leadership coach will use some form of leadership assessment tool to assess the level of skill / behaviour you have at present, and highlight how they will help you develop from that baseline. If they don’t, they will often be guessing and probing in your first couple of coaching sessions – which is OK – but should you have to wait for them to learn about you when they can do it more effectively? There are a myriad of effective tools in the marketplace, just make sure that the tool provides useful information for you in its own right – it should be in plain language and discuss leadership behaviours. It should also measure behaviours that can develop and grow, that you can easily relate to specific behaviours to improve. The tool used should be more than a personality test, which are often generically written (4 types, 4 colours etc) and not designed to change over time.

Ensure the tool being used can be used again in several months time so that you can have a tangible measure of growth – after all, ‘what isn’t measured, isn’t done’. Most effective leadership coaches can provide you with a PDF of a standard report from their chosen leadership assessment tool, and many will provide an assessment / short debrief as part of their introductory process. 

Ask:

  • ‘What leadership assessment tool do you use?’
  • ‘Can I have a copy of a standard / example leadership report’
  • ‘Do you offer an assessment prior to committing to a coaching contract / process’

7. How Will You Challenge Me (and Yourself)?

While rapport and connection is very important through a coaching process, an effective leadership coach is not your best friend. While they will encourage you and cheer you on through your successes, they also need to be able to hold you to account for behaviours that aren’t helping you succeed and challenge your thinking and your actions. An effective leadership coach understands the difference between what you want to hear, and what you need to hear. They won’t be cold and emotionless – an effective leadership coach will discuss your development needs clearly and specifically, identify a path to develop and grow and guide / help / push you towards action to address shortfalls. Don’t get me know, coaching can be a fun process! But fun is a welcome by-product; learning and growth is the main objective.

Further, ask about their own coaching process. An effective leadership coach knows that they don’t have all of the answers and are developing and growing themselves. An effective leadership has experienced the process of coaching for themselves, they understand the impact, the sticking points in their own development and can discuss it clearly with you. If your chosen coach doesn’t believe in the coaching process, why should you?

Ask:

  • ‘How will you challenge me to develop my skills?’
  • ‘What is the process if we disagree on a way forward?’
  • ‘Do you have a coach at present?’
  • ‘What did you learn through your coaching process?’

Through asking some or all of these questions, you will be able to make an informed decision about your coach being the ‘right fit’ for you. Not only will you know if the person in front of you is an effective leadership coach, but if they are the right leadership coach to assist you in growing and developing as a leader.

The 9 Questions To Ask When Choosing An Executive Leadership Coach – A Summary

These 9 simple questions will help you identify the good from the bad, the amateur from the professional, the executive leadership coach worth paying for compared to the one that is an expensive waste of time.

  • Question 1 – Do you have a coach yourself?
  • Question 2 – Are you an accredited coach?
  • Question 3 – What is your experience as a leader?
  • Question 4 – What is your own coaching style?
  • Question 5 – Who else would you recommend?
  • Question 6 – What recommendations and success stories do you have?
  • Question 7 – What resources and tools do you have at your disposal?
  • Question 8 – What leadership assessment tool do you use?
  • Question 9 – How will you challenge me (and yourself)?

If you are talking or engaging a coach that can’t answer these 9 questions effectively – walk away! There are plenty of highly effective coaches who can – and you deserve to work with someone that can back up what they say with action.

Looking For An Executive Leadership Coach?

Focussed, personal, confidential, honest and practical – all words that have been used in testimonials to describe the Institute of Management & Leadership Development’s Executive Leadership Coaching. If this sounds like something that could be useful for you or a member of your team, get in touch with us today for a confidential chat about your needs. If you would like to read what other clients experienced and gained through the Executive Leadership Coaching process, check out our LinkedIn recommendationsreviews and testimonials.

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19May

Executive Coach ‘Shout Out’

We at IMLD have believed for a long time, if an executive coach truly believes in coaching, they will have a coach themselves. After all, if a coach won’t invest in the coaching process (or their own development or their own program), why should a client? In the middle of International Coaching Week, we wanted to shout out to 3 amazing coaches that we truly respect and have helped and guided us through the trials, heartaches and joys of executive coaching.

I was asked recently ‘why do you have a coach from another business when you could have someone from within your own business coach you?’ It is a valid question! I have found in my coaching practise, it is easier to have ‘one role’ with the person you are working with; which is why I have rarely coached friends. There is an already established working / relationship pattern, and coaching relationship someone has a different pattern / set of trust boundaries. When you work with someone as a peer, teammate, friend or boss, the relationship dynamic can change when you also coach them, or when they coach you. Working with an external coach avoids those complications.

In addition, working with an external coach provides a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective on an issue or problem. Unencumbered by history, bias, previous processes or relationships, an external coach can approach an issue in a way that can be different to what you expect. Often that different perspective can help someone get through their own roadblocks – the same as why we are employed as coaches within businesses. Just because we run a leadership training and coaching business doesn’t mean we can’t get stuck on business problems!

Finally, an external coach can hold you to account for your actions and responsibility in a clearer way. For similar reasons to those above, an external coach does not have heirarchy issues to consider when holding someone to account for their actions – they have been employed and have been asked to do just that.

To Evan Spargo, PCCSarah Devereaux MCC and Jo Lanigan – Master Certified Coach (MCC) – you are all amazing coaches in your own right, and an amazing team. It has been a pleasure to work with you all, and the team at Institute of Management & Leadership Development are the better for it. Thank you.
#coaching #executivecoaching #leadershipdevelopment #IMLD #developingleade

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Could an executive coach be of benefit to you as a leader?

Why not find out? At the Institute of Management & Leadership Development, there are two ways you could ‘try before you buy’ in regards to executive coaching.

  1. Call and discuss your needs with one of our Executive Leadership Coaches. You can confidentially discuss your needs, what is working and what isn’t, and one of our highly skilled Executive Leadership Coaches can discuss the process and likely outcomes with you. Or,
  2. Call us to complete a Velocity Leadership CheckPoint – our leadership assessment tool. Not sure what your leadership strengths or weaknesses are? Looking to get some guidance on what to improve? The CheckPoint considers 25 behavioural leadership traits, focussed in 5 distinct leadership capabilities, providing you with a ‘snapshot’ of your current leadership performance, and allowing you to make an informed decision on an proposed coaching initiative.

Related Articles

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18May

What Do Executive Coaching Clients Say About Coaching?

What do our executive coaching clients say about coaching? Why did they seek out a coach? What were they looking for? Did they achieve what they were looking for?

We asked several of our current and recently completed coaching clients what they experienced in coaching and how they found the process overall. Here are some of the things they said:

Leadership coaching with Michael Peiniger has helped me more than I thought it would, I wasn’t sure what to expect but his coaching brought out the leader who was always in me, but perhaps was a little afraid. Michael has taught me to be assertive, organised and efficient, he also guided me to be more open with my team which sometimes means being vulnerable which is a strength I never recognised. I could list the different models which helped me (which are many) or what I now do differently every day, instead, I just urge you to let Michael into your office and chaotic mind, because being a leader is difficult. Michael will help you tidy it up, sort it out and lead your team to achieve your organisations goals.’

”He helped me to confront some career challenges I was then facing. He stretched my thinking, was kind and considerate, and he really made me work hard! In the end, I have been able to move to that next stage in my career, and I am so grateful for his sage advice at the time and pragmatic approach.

Through one on one leadership mentoring and coaching combined with facilitated group leadership coaching, Michael enabled me to develop the tools and skills to succeed in the corporate environment. Michael has enabled me to develop my analytical and business navigation skills and how to manage a variety of diverse situations and people while encouraging lateral thinking.

I admit I started on the path of coaching with a healthy dose of scepticism, which I suspect is not unlike many others before me. However, I happily confess this was misplaced. Working with Michael over the last 4 months or so has been both a pleasurable and valuable experience. Michael was able to look through some of the symptoms and help me identify and start to address some of the causes of hurdles in my path to greater satisfaction in my work place. At the same time the improved clarity has helped me understand myself and a number of my outside-of-work relationships.

Executive Leadership Coaching Testimonial - David Robinson

At first I knew there were areas I wanted to work on, but I couldn’t put my finger on what they were. Michael not only helped me identify these areas, but then grounded and rooted me in my own values, strengths and purpose which has helped realign me with my own goals and direction. The tools Michael introduced to me were so simple and effective I can recall them daily allowing me to put them into practise instantly when I recognise the disruptive behaviours in myself, my team and others around me. Another great benefit was being able to call Michael to talk through difficult problems that arose and he would always offer a very calm and experienced perspective that has helped balance my own thought processes in a very turbulent time.

‘Following the coaching I’m now more confident with running the business and knowing I’m fulfilling all aspects of my role. The outcomes from the coaching work has increased the whole teams confidence and improved their interactions with one another too. As an example, we now inoculate a person in our team to make sure they are are ready for a difficult conversation – its efficient and has a known outcome: to lift the team. One specific thing I liked was the AIR/BLEED model – everyone can be above and below the line at times but this is a fantastic model to hear and catch yourself being below the line. This realisation is the key to changing your approach and owning your responsibilities.’

‘It was a great journey going through the Executive Leadership coaching with Michael. I was able to explore a lot of new ideas and look at situations from a new perspective. The most important lesson for me was “Don’t assume”. Differences arise because we assume rather than ask questions and Michael helped me recognise all the different ways we assume instead of getting curious and asking questions.’

‘Michael provided guidance and confidence to hone in sharing my values with team members by highlighting my likes and dislikes. It was an engaging management tool for me. The opportunity to discuss certain behaviours, plainly outlining my expectations allowed me to communicate a platform for what I deemed fair and reasonable behaviour. As a result of this coaching, I have gained the trust from certain team members that was previously not in my rehems.

‘At first I was a little reluctant to enrol in a leadership coaching course. As I have continued to work with Michael I have definitely reaped the benefits of Michael’s coaching and ongoing support, especially in dealing with difficult situations.

What could Executive Leadership Coaching do for you and your leadership? What could it do for your team? What could it do for your business?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Could an Executive Coach be of benefit to you as a leader?

Why not find out? At the Institute of Management & Leadership Development, there are two ways you could ‘try before you buy’ in regards to executive coaching.

  1. Call and discuss your needs with one of our Executive Leadership Coaches. You can confidentially discuss your needs, what is working and what isn’t, and one of our highly skilled Executive Leadership Coaches can discuss the process and likely outcomes with you. Or,
  2. Call us to complete a Velocity Leadership CheckPoint – our leadership assessment tool. Not sure what your leadership strengths or weaknesses are? Looking to get some guidance on what to improve? The CheckPoint considers 25 behavioural leadership traits, focussed in 5 distinct leadership capabilities, providing you with a ‘snapshot’ of your current leadership performance, and allowing you to make an informed decision on an proposed coaching initiative.

Related Articles

The Real Benefit to Executive Coaching

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The 7 Key Questions to Ask When Selecting a Leadership Coach

#coaching #leadership #executivecoaching

17May

7 Reasons to Engage an Executive Leadership Coach

Why have an executive leadership coach?

Can you name a high performing sports star, athlete, singer, dancer or artist that doesn’t have a coach? Coaches can provide a leaders and managers with a myriad of assistance in developing their leadership, critical thinking and problem solving skills. Here are 7 ways an executive leadership coach can help your leaders improve their ‘thinking, feeling and doing’ within a business.

1. A Leadership Coach Will Drive You To Higher Performance And Success.

Every leader can benefit greatly from having an Executive Leadership Coach.  To consistently get the best out of others and produces improved results, high-performing leaders work with those that can get the best out of them, provide alternatives and hold them to their targets.

2. A Leadership Coach will work with you to develop the skills required to lead people, in a way that suits you

Positive and engaged workforces don’t happen by accident – they are created by consistently leadership practices over time. Low engagement leads to dissatisfaction, low retention, productivity and poor performance. As a leader, part of your role is to ensure that your people stay engaged and happy. A happy, healthy and engaged team produces consistently high results, even through adversity. 

Importantly, there isn’t a ‘one way’ or ‘right way’ to lead a team – it varies depending on the leaders and teams ability, drive, culture, experience and business circumstances. A good executive leadership coach will tailor their coaching approach to suit you and your strengths and weaknesses to ensure that you are successful in managing and leading your team.

3. A Leadership Coach will support you in developing and achieving your purpose.

Great leaders understand their purpose and can visualise and articulate a vision of the future that can inspire others – their friends, their peers, and those that work for them – to work together in producing results that bring that vision to life. A leadership coach can work with you to develop your purpose and achieve clarity of your vision, and the core values that assist you in achieving it. In addition, they can help you articulate your purpose and vision in a way that is both meaningful to you and engaging for others, getting your team ‘on board’ rather than driving them away.

4. A Leadership Coach will encourage you in the right direction and hold firm when you falter. 

Everyone has moments when they doubt their purpose, their ability, their drive and their results. 

A leadership coach is your most unreasonable friend – who encourages you and cheers you on when you need it, and provides a helping hand or push when you are just about to give up.

A good executive leadership coach can work with you to explore alternatives and options you hadn’t thought of, or didn’t feel you had the confidence or expertise to implement.  They will support you in finding the right direction and work along side you to stay the course.

5. A Leadership Coach will listen without judgment when you think you are not doing well.

A good leadership coach is a good listener first and foremost. They know that it can be lonely in a leadership position – you can feel unable to share your thoughts, doubts or stresses without feeling judged. A leadership coach can provide confidential counsel for leaders to open up and discuss the areas you struggle with; the doubts, the fears, the negative thoughts. We work with you to navigate a path out of doubt to self-assurance, and provide practical tools and models to assist when it does get hard. Of course we offer much more, but it starts with listening and understanding.

6. A Leadership Coach will offer a different view / path when you think you can’t move forward.

Successful leaders always look to the next level. For coaching to work, there needs to be a desire to go beyond your current state. An executive leadership coach will support you become aware of the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, and map out a plan and goals to help you achieve it.

7. A Leadership Coach will cheer you on following the little wins and challenge you to do more.

Leading a business to achieve a goal takes thousands of little tasks and interactions with your team, customers and providers. It can be easy to forget what you have done, how far you have come and what impact you have made – there is always one more hill to climb or one more task to complete.

A leadership coach celebrates the little wins with you, and encourages you to stay on the path for achieving your goals. Leading a business can be lonely and there will be few that understand the trials and task that you complete to achieve your role as a leader – an executive leadership coach will recognise the small wins that others may overlook and cheer you along for the work, the effort and the long term wins.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Could an executive coach be of benefit to you as a leader?

Why not find out? At the Institute of Management & Leadership Development, there are two ways you could ‘try before you buy’ in regards to executive coaching.

  1. Call and discuss your needs with one of our Executive Leadership Coaches. You can confidentially discuss your needs, what is working and what isn’t, and one of our highly skilled Executive Leadership Coaches can discuss the process and likely outcomes with you. Or,
  2. Call us to complete a Velocity Leadership CheckPoint – our leadership assessment tool. Not sure what your leadership strengths or weaknesses are? Looking to get some guidance on what to improve? The CheckPoint considers 25 behavioural leadership traits, focussed in 5 distinct leadership capabilities, providing you with a ‘snapshot’ of your current leadership performance, and allowing you to make an informed decision on an proposed coaching initiative.

Related Articles

The Real Benefit to Executive Coaching

Great Leaders Are Humble Learners

The 7 Key Questions to Ask When Selecting a Leadership Coach

13May

Leadership Insights: When Did You Last Give Your Best?

When did you last give your best? When was the last time you gave ‘your best’ at something? I mean, your very best? What impact does this have on your leadership and the leadership of your team?
10 years ago (I know!) I posted an article following the video clip below regarding your best.  In the video, the coach pushes his player, and encourages him to go beyond what he thought was possible, inspiring not only himself but the rest of the team.
It got me thinking about two things:

? When was the last time you forced the best out of yourself?
? When was the last time that you asked for the ‘very best’ out of your team members?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sUKoKQlEC4

Have we forgotten to ask for the best and will accept ‘OK’, ‘near enough’ and ‘a pretty good effort’?
When I was truthful with myself and looked at the last couple of weeks, I can say that I have accepted good and perhaps even above average, but I haven’t given my best (in my opinion) very often recently. Others may not have noticed and rated performances as good and very good (which is pleasing!), the effort, preparation and execution have not been my best.

Consider your team at present.

? Are they giving you their best effort? If not, have you asked for it?

? What can you different today to give your best?

? Have you forgotten to ask for the best and will accept ‘OK’?

? Is ‘near enough’ and ‘a pretty good effort’ good enough for you right now?

When I thought about what I had achieved in the last couple of weeks (and when I was truthful with myself), I can say that I have accepted good and perhaps even above average, but I haven’t given my best (in my opinion) very often recently. In my facilitation and interactions with team members, ‘my best’ was delivered on some very specific occasions. While other people have rated performances as good and very good (which is pleasing!), the effort, preparation and execution have not been ‘my best’.

Consider your team at present. Are they giving you their best effort? If not, have you asked for it?

[This next part os from the original post 10 years ago, but I can still remember it like it was yesterday]

I was reminded on the weekend about good and best efforts from a 10-year old soccer team. I was fortunate to coach the team in the absence of their regular coach, and I asked them the question ‘Are you going to give me your best?’ Needless to say I didn’t get the reaction I hoped for until I elaborated. I told them very clearly what I thought their best effort would look like, how they would play and how they would treat each other on the pitch. I also told them, one by one, what their individual best effort would look like. I them asked for permission to tell them when they were playing their best, and advise them when they weren’t.

It was one of the most exciting games of soccer I have seen. The boys on that team gave their best effort, beating a two-year undefeated side 3-1 (after losing 3 months ago 6-2).

I would love to say the win was based on superior coaching and tactical skill, but that would be very far from the truth! The boys played so well because they were asked to give their best, and their efforts were recognised and reinforced. All I had to do was ask for it and gain permission to tell them if they were / weren’t delivering it.

? When was the last time you asked for the best from your team?

? Equally, when was the last time you did the best you could for your team? What is holding you back?

Ask for the best – you might be surprised by the results.

What can you different today to give your best?
#leadership #success #coaching #leadershipdevelopment #motivation #highperformanceteams #IMLD #developingleaders

Related Posts:

Be The Leader You Wish You Had When You Started

Will You Be A More Humble Leadership Learner in Q2?

12May

Leadership Program Testimonial – Rod Palmer, Lyondellbasell

Thanks, Rod Palmer for the lovely words! I have loved facilitating our leadership program with you and the team at Lyondellbasdell, and I am looking forward to the future sessions.

If you are looking to develop your leadership skills, get your team back on track, build a team culture of high-performance, or just looking to work one on one on some of those ‘less confident’ issues , then book a confidential discovery call with me and let’s see how I can help.

To book go to: https://www.developingleaders.com.au/contact-imld/

#leadership #leadershipdevelopment #success #coaching #IMLD #developingleaders

04May

Effective Feedback Follows SMART Principles

Great leaders know the importance of providing feedback, yet many leaders and managers deliver it poorly, if at all. Effective Feedback follows SMART principles – the concept used for goal setting. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Based feedback can make all the difference. ‘Nice job’, ‘Good work’, ‘Well done’ sound great on the surface, but the sentiment is short lived because of delivery shortfalls. Equally, ‘That wasn’t good enough’, ‘you could do better’ or ‘pick up your act’ to improve performance equally fall flat because of poor delivery.

Why is this important? Because if you are taking the time to say something to your team, you want it to be as effective, targeted and long lasting as possible. Consider the acronym for goal setting – SMART – for your feedback as well.

? Specific. Be specific! One of the greatest differences that leaders can make to their feedback is to be more specific. What exactly did you like or dislike? What behaviour? You liked the report I submitted – was it the accuracy, the format, the execution you liked, or was it the fact that it was delivered on time? If leaders aren’t specific regarding what they like and don’t like, the chances of the same behaviour being repeated reduce.

? Measurable. What tangible impact did it have? How did it make your life easier / harder? What result did it produce? In short, why did you like it or dislike it so much? Again, if the person receiving the feedback understands the impact that their behaviour had, they are more likely to repeat it (for good behaviour) or less likely to repeat it (for improved behaviour).

? Attainable. Could the goal actually be achieved? This is incredibly important for constructive feedback – if the result wasn’t achieved – could it actually be achieved. There is nothing worse that providing constructive feedback to someone only to find that the chances or success were low to begin with due to time, resources, team etc.

? Relevant. Make sure the feedback matches the behaviour ie. don’t raise irrelevant behaviour or ‘tack on’ something else while you have the chance. This is often done both with positive as well as constructive feedback. A chance was missed previously to mention something good to your team member, so why not tack it on here as well? Unless you are mentioning it to reinforce your positive point, it will fall flat. It is even less effective with negative / constructive feedback. The predominant question in the mind of the receiver is ‘why didn’t you tell me that before?’

? Time-Based. Providing feedback on behaviour a week ago is wasted time and effort. Provide it swiftly, and provide it SMART.

Is your feedback SMART?

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