I was recently asked by the CFO of a tech company, How can we make the learning from the professional development events we do, stick? So I went ahead and wrote this article…
Check out this article on LinkedIn: How can we make the learning from Professional Development Stick
Enjoy!
Emily
Diana Golden Brosnihan, a brilliant skier. Diana won 19 Gold medals in world competition.
How do you go about setting and attaining goals?
What challenges do you face when setting goals?
How do you hold yourself accountable for accomplishing a goal?
How do you know when you are successful?
How do you celebrate success?
Setting goals and how one attains them can differ between the athlete and the executive. With the end result being success for both, it differs in how one’s goals are identified and what role the coach plays. The skier may tell their coach their overall goal of wanting to ski all the intermediate terrain comfortably. The ski coach then identifies what the skier’s needs are to accomplish this and creates the smaller goals or stepping stones for their student, telling them and showing them what to do and how to do it. They encourage and provide feedback throughout, even skiing down the hill in order to literally mirror proper movements for them; perhaps even manipulating them physically so they may feel the correct positioning.
The executive coach questions, providing space for the client to explore possibilities and express how they see, feel, or think about things. Instead of focusing on what the coach thinks, an executive coach focuses on the client’s thoughts and ideas. It is a conversation to provoke thought and bring out of the executive his or her own goals and direction they want to go; guiding the executive to identify for themselves what the path is (obstacles and resources) to get them to their goal. Executive coaching includes mirroring also, but it’s mirroring the client’s words back to them and asking for more depth of vision.
The executive coach focuses on repeating the positive statements and rephrases in an affirmative way so as to support clear, positive, proactive thought patterns; similar to how the sports coach performs the maneuvers in the correct way, leading the student to see positive movement patterns with the goal of creating the correct image for the student. Through open-ended questioning, the executive coach listens to what the client says so they can identify what the client wants. The coach then takes the very words of the client, without analyzing or judging, and reflects them back to their client.
The scope of goals for an executive is broad and can range from any issue in the person’s life to one particular project in a particular area. This broad scope arena for goal options means the look of success for an executive is just as broad. The coach for the executive then uses their fine-tuned skills to help guide the executive to clarify and pinpoint particular goals and then prioritize them. Through further questioning to bring out existing resources and strengths, the executive coach helps the client to identify action steps and timelines as well as measures for success.
While the sports coach takes into consideration confidence levels, analyzes movement and then teaches and advises. The executive coach brings about awareness through discussion, plus exploration of their client’s wants, thoughts, and behaviors. Awareness is enlightening to the executive, just as it is to the athlete. Sports and executive coaches both seek to empower their student/client and provide action steps and timelines for making change based on new awarenesses of body mind and spirit.
In part 4, I address risk taking and behavior change.
With the rise in popularity of executive coaching, you may ask yourself, “Why would I want a coach? What can a coach do for me? Athletes have coaches and that seems customary but how is it customary for an executive to have a coach? How is it different from or similar to the athletic coach?”
How often do you find yourself in a situation at work where you wish you had someone to run things by? How could you have benefitted by having someone to help you navigate challenging terrain, something as simple as building an agenda for a board meeting or as difficult as having a challenging conversation with an employee?
Coaching has its roots in tutoring and has been a part of sports since the 1800’s. In its simplest form, the traditional coach is defined as “a person who gives advice.” The beginning of most definitions of a coach is “a person who teaches or trains…” A new definition of coaching is emerging with the rising popularity of professional life, health, and executive coaches. What executive coaches do is similar in many respects to what sports coaches do, and it also differs in precise and important ways.
Coaching the Athlete vs. Coaching the Executive is part one of an eight-part series, comparing and contrasting my experience as a skiing coach to my experience as an executive coach.
When athletes perform, they are having fun, competing, and hoping to perform efficiently and at the top of their game. They are inspired, focused, and motivated. Sports coaches are teachers with students. Sports coaches tell their students how to do what they do, listen and support their students in creating goals and action steps that will help them win. They provide advice and direction, telling their students what to do and how to do it. Sports coaches often have mastered a sport to some degree, usually to a higher level than that of their students, in order to effectively coach the student.
When executives are in their working mode, leading people, keeping up on issues, finding resources for their business and finding better, more efficient ways to do more of what they do, they also are inspired, focused, and motivated. Executive coaches listen, encourage their clients to create their goals and action steps and support change, based on what the clients wish to achieve. Executive coaches don’t tell or advise. Instead of collaborative involvement to set the goals with or for the clients, executive coaches give clients the space to be the sole decision-makers, free from direction. Executive coaches don’t provide the answers. Instead, they ask open-ended questions, prompting their clients to discover the answers for themselves. Executive coaches listen to understand and to determine which questions to ask next. The goal is to provoke more thoughts on subjects identified by the executives. Executive coaches partner with clients so the clients can explore, move past obstacles, strategize, plan their own actions, and create change they have defined and chosen themselves. Executive coaches do not have to be the content experts. Executives hold the answers for themselves, and the coaches’ job is to bring the answers that already exist in the minds of their clients to the surface.
This first blog highlights an important difference in the relationship between an executive coach and the sports coach. In Part Two of this series you’ll learn more about the coaching relationships experienced in sports coaching and executive coaching.
It’s common in today’s society to suddenly find one’s self in the role of caregiver to a friend or family member. Caregiving is emotionally charged on top of being another full-time job with a host of responsibilities.
I just finished setting up a Caring Bridge account for yet another friend beginning their journey with cancer. It causes a heaviness that I bring with me to work and other parts of my day. How can I go on with my life lightly as my friend is fighting to keep hers?
Many of us have experience with loss and grief but that doesn’t make it any easier. I have been volunteering with hospice for decades, yet I still go through the inevitable cycle of grief that comes with the territory.
Hospice encourages supporting caregivers with respite; any kind of respite you can offer: time away for a walk, an ear to listen without offering solutions; a precooked meal; or any simple gesture of support.
I believe the best thing a caregiver can do is take care of one’s self first. I know it sounds counterintuitive but it is similar to what they tell you on the airplane about the oxygen mask… put it on yourself before putting it on your baby because you can’t help your baby if you can’t breath.
Some examples of taking care of yourself in the caregiver role include accepting help every time it is offered, allowing yourself to take breaks, taking the time to do something you enjoy, getting enough sleep and having a confidant.
Yet, how are we to handle that heavy ache at work? How can we stop the crusade we find ourselves on to take on the medical aspects as well as handle the other challenges of life such as if there are young children and financial issues and animals and…and…and…
One client shared, “I feel very purposeful caring for my mom yet the one thing I crave is time to sit alone and think about how things are unfolding.” While another client shared, “I am so busy between work and caregiving that when I do have a free moment all I want to do is go wander aimlessly around the mall and just look at and touch everything but I feel so guilty wasting precious time.” These things may seem simple but they are not; they are important survival tactics and in the end will make each moment more valuable.
Balancing caregiving with the rest of one’s life the demands of one’s career with the demands of the other aspects of one’s life fills the hours of the day easily. Adding the role of caregiver means needing help. Therefore, finding balance among the important roles in your life is critical and the best way to take care of you.
How are you taking care of yourself so work and life are balanced?
Coaching is a great way to take care of one’s self and many coaches offer a free introductory session.