leadership

Leadership versus Management

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Leadership_Spotlight

In a recent training I was asked how leadership differs from management.

Well for a start, it’s personal.

 

There is little difference between who you are as a person and who you are as a professional.

 

As a leader you bring your whole self to work and are adept at managing all different aspects of yourself. Leadership is not just a mental challenge, it’s also emotional and physical.

 

 Do you know what kind of a leader you wish to be?

 

Are you able to identify what’s going on and distinguish which areas you need to develop?

 

Do you know your limits and move through your activities with productive energy and enthusiasm, even when you’ re being tested?

 

Who benefits when you take the time to clarify your leadership role?

 

How can you best lead change, your stakeholders, your team, yourself?                   

 

 

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Build-and-Broaden

Business coaching/Training

strengths

Pioneered by the research of Barbara Frederickson, the theory of “Build-and-Broaden” shows that positive emotions increase the number of potential behavioural options. When this is applied in the workplace, it is clear that focusing upon strengths yields much greater performance and results. At The Coach Approach, we encourage you to heed the advice shared by Peter Drucker:

“Waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. Concentration should be on areas of high competence and high skill. It takes far more energy and far more work to improve from incompetence to low mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence. And yet most people, and equally most teachers and most organisations, try to concentrate on making an incompetent person into a low mediocrity. The energy and resources – and time – should instead go into making a competent person into a star performer.”

Calling all leaders!

Business coaching/Training, Life coaching, Positive Psychology

Science of Happiness

Research has proved it once again: your actions can have a significant effect on your happiness and satisfaction with life. Whether it be in the area of personal mastery and leadership or leading a team at work, here are proven ways to increase your wellness and thrive! Click here to download the poster “10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy”.

The Strengths Approach

Business coaching/Training

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It is a well-documented fact that we are far more likely to fulfill our potential by focusing on our strengths rather than on our weaknesses. In the words of Peter Drucker, renowned management consultant: “It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count”!

Awareness of our character strengths can be a really helpful tool for building capacity – going from first-rate to excellent. Understanding character strengths is also essential  for developing new paths for engagement, satisfaction and fulfillment on the job. Last but not least, this approach can also be used for problem-solving.  Experience this for yourself and for your team by trying these 3 simple steps:

1)      Identify your top character strengths using the free VIA online test (www.viasurvey.org)

2)      Identify a problem that you need to deal with

3)      Ask yourself how you can apply your specific character strengths to solving this problem

“The real tragedy in life is not that each of us doesn’t have enough strengths, it’s that we fail to use the ones we have.” (M. Buckingham and D. Clifton in Now, “Discover Your Strengths”)

Why the COACH Approach

Business coaching/Training

coach driver

Have you thought about the origins of the word “coaching” (before coaching was associated with sports)? Originally the coach was a horse-drawn carriage used to transport people from one point to another, an early form of taxi service. And of course the first question the driver asked the passenger before driving anywhere was: “Where do you want to go?”  Just like the cab driver, a coach won’t tell you not to go to your desired destination – but they know that there can be different routes to get to there! The coach/driver will therefore ask questions about your preferences, guiding you according to your interests and goals. Our Coach Approach services provide the same role today: to take clients people from one point to another by collaboration, inviting questions and clarifying options.

Brains

Business coaching/Training

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A recent post in the Executive’s magazine Business Leadership Management (BLM) states: “Brains? It doesn’t necessarily mean a high IQ. It means curiosity, common sense, wisdom, imagination, and literacy.”

Sounds like a perfect description of coaching, as practiced by our team at The Coach Approach! Bolstered by our innate curiosity, we support our clients in exploring their best outcomes and ways to realize them. The results? A process which fosters deepening awareness of where they are now (common sense); where they want to get to (imagination); and a variety of possible ways to get there (wisdom).

Awareness – acceptance – actions … brain power incorporating emotional intelligence = the best support for your professional development!

 

 

 

Fulfilment at Work

Business coaching/Training

steve

In his address to the graduating class at Stanford, the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote:

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

The Coach Approach specializes in training and coaching with a focus on values. Once your tribe is connected to goals with personal meaning, transformation and success are on their way!

Effective Communication

Business coaching/Training

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A recent article in Business Leadership Management magazine states that: “Effective communications should link a compelling message with the value that management expects to create…”. It goes on to note that this involves three key elements: aspirations, strategy, and evidence.

At The Coach Approach, we couldn’t agree more! Our workshops show exactly HOW to do this … to articulate a positive,compelling goal; to implement an effective action plan; to elaborate contingency plans for even greater evidence-based results; and to enjoy both the learning process and the final results!

Focus on the Path

Business coaching/Training

path

“I know some people say “Keep your eyes on the prize,” but I disagree. When your eyes are stuck on the prize, you’re going to keep stumbling and crashing into things. If you really want to get ahead, you’ve got to keep your eyes focused on the path.” ~ Russell Simmons from Do You!

Here at The Coach Approach we support you in clearly defining your personal and organizational goals and values – “the prize”. Then, starting with the end in mind, we help you to focus on the steps required  to completely immerse yourself in doing your best moment to moment.  Focusing on the effort, instead of the results of that effort, keeps your eyes on the path and leads to the prize!

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7 HABITS TO START YOUR WEEK WELL

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Watch out for that high stress, constant anxiety over tasks and work and life, social anxiety …  the modern way of life.

Decide to start this week with a sense of peace, of calm, of serenity.

You can’t control the things that happen to you much of the time, and you certainly can’t control how other people act. The only thing you can control is your response — and this response matters. You can respond to the same event with anxiety or anger, or you can respond with peace and calmness.

Let’s figure out how.

The Habits of Calmness

  1. A calm morning ritual. Find the quiet of the morning and make the most of it.
  2. Learn to watch your response. When something stressful happens, what is your response?
  3. Don’t take things personallyYou can learn not to interpret events as a personal affront, and instead see it as some non-personal external event (like a leaf falling, a bird flying by) that you can either respond to without a stressful mindset, or not need to respond to at all.
  4. Be grateful. Drop the complaints, and find a way to be grateful, no matter what. And then smile. This unbending habit can change your life.
  5. Create stress coping habits. Healthy stress coping habits include: exercise, yoga, meditation, massaging your own neck & shoulders, taking a walk, drinking some water, talking with someone you care about – which ones are you doing?
  6. Single-task. What if you just did one thing, and learned to trust that you shouldn’t be doing anything else? It takes practice: just eat. Just wash your bowl. Just walk. Just talk to someone. Just read one article or book, without switching. Just write. Just do your email, one at a time. You’ll learn that there is peace in just doing one thing, and letting go of everything else.
  7. Reduce noise. Our lives are filled with all kinds of noise — visual clutter, notifications, social media, news, all the things we need to read. Reduce all these things and more, create some space, some quiet, in your life.