Tag Archive for: Honest

Part 3: Setting and Attaining Goals

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setting and attaining goals

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 and attaining goals

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.

organizational development services

How are you connected to your organization’s mission?

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connected to your organization’s mission

Connecting to the mission of one’s work adds value and purpose to the work.

Consider the following questions:

How clear are you about your organization’s mission?
How do you explain to others what you do?
How do you explain why you do what you do?
How does your role at work directly connect you with the organization’s purpose?
How does your role at work connect to your personal goals and values?

In my work with one nonprofit, the board was made up of “old timers” and “new comers”. There was lots of new energy and ideas in the air. The new comers were taking things in a new and fresh direction to bring in new and exciting things to draw in new and enthusiastic members. The old timers were wondering how this fit with their purpose. The new comers saw the potential to bring in more money with this newness. This sounded good to the old timers so they moved forward.

What happened was mission drift. It became hard for the board to agree where to focus and spend and grow because they lost the sense of who they were and why they existed in the first place. It became challenging for leadership to focus on precision and for the staff to operate when the mission was no longer clear. The messaging to the public became fuzzy and the purpose of, and connection to, the organization was drifting for all.

The next board meeting required a full agenda on the questions “Why do we exist?” and “Who do we intend to serve?”

It is invigorating to revisit the mission of one’s organization and clarify the connection for governing members, leadership and staff as well as for one’s self. Clarifying and articulating the mission is also a powerful tool for on-boarding new team members and champions.

How is the work of your board, leadership and staff different when your connected to your organization’s mission organization’s mission is clear and each can articulate their own connection to it?

I offer a program on mission connection and enjoy my work with boards, staff and individuals to strengthen connections in their lives.

Request a complimentary Connection Strengthening Session today.

Note: A wonderful read discussing mission connection is the book, Focus on Sustainability by Dennis McMillian of the Foraker Group.

 

 

 

How important is it for you to be your authentic self in the workplace?

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authentic self in the workplace

Authentic self in the workplace

In its simplest form, authenticity means being true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.

Shortly after joining a team with a strongly established culture different than my client had ever experienced or was natural to her, she was thrown off her game. Advice from former colleagues and her boss was “Keep your head down.” “Follow their lead.” “This is the culture of this workplace so you will have to fit in.”

As her coach, I know how much she stretched to fit in but she just didn’t. She also expressed, the importance for her to feel safe to learn and grow in her job in order to maintain interest and enjoyment in her work. Her awareness raised, that in order for growth to happen she needs to feel safe. Growth and learning requires one to be vulnerable and not many want to create a vulnerable environment for themselves when they don’t feel safe.

Feeling safe in the workplace requires trust; it’s a rather essential human desire.

As new team members joined the organization, the culture shifted. Through coaching, she learned to observe the situation and what she saw was the entire culture shifting as more diverse personality types came on board. Eventually, the entire team became off balance. The culture was now unclear for all. Many felt there was no safe way of being and productivity declined significantly.

As a coach, I experience this topic in a high percentage of the people I work with and I often ask them how they can expect to stand up, let alone function at a high level, when they are off balance?” It provides awareness and opens them to consider the questions “How important is it to be authentic self in the workplace
—true to one’s own personality, spirit or character?” “How far must one/can one stretch to make the workplace culture productive and enjoyable for them?”

For this client it was absolutely essential for her to trust that she was part of the team because of who and how she is as well as because of her skills. So I leave you with this question…

What will be different in your workplace, as each team member trusts they are placed on the team for their unique personality, spirit, and character?

Coaching supports you as you find your place on the team while being true to yourself.

Request a complimentary Team Enhancement consultation today!

Note: When talking on this topic with a colleague, he shared a great article in the Harvard Business Review by Herminia Ibarra titled, The Authenticity Paradox about the complexity of what being authentic means. It is good food for thought and opens a meaningful conversation about authenticity when looking to hire someone.