Executive Coaching--what you don't know may hurt you

Executive Coaching is now a billion dollar industry. One can hope that is because it is found to be the most effective learning strategy for developing leaders. One might also worry that it is instead because of effective marketing techniques.

As the field of coaching develops, we are seeing a surge in research. Much of this research has serious limitations because it is conducted by those trying to sell their services. But there is a trend toward "Evidence-based Coaching" and here coaching is being put to the litmus test. This weekend I had the opportunity to hear Anthony Grant from the University of Sydney speak on his research on coaching and it was refreshing. Why? for the following reasons:

• He is actually conducting randomized, controlled experimental studies on coaching effectiveness.
• His studies are aimed at examining whether coaching is indeed effective, and if so, in what context.
• He overtly challenges the coaching profession to develop more critical thinking and rigorous empirical evidence.
• He acknowledges that much of the public (and academic) perception of coaching is (to paraphrase) conducted by happy-faced people led by gurus and is lacking any kind of scientific base.....( Seen Penn and Teller's parody of Life Coaching?)
• His research finds that INSIGHT is necessary for change, and;
• He proposes that Coaching is essentially Applied Positive Psychology.

Some may argue with this last point but if you scratch the surface of most coach training programs you see at the core a psychologically-based curriculum emphasizing enhanced communication, listening skills, relationship building, goal-setting and behavioral change.

I applaud this effort to apply scientific rigor to the coaching field. I am also confident the research will confirm the benefits of this learning approach and provide us a better roadmap for conducting effective leadership development programs.

Healthcare Reform Craziness--Part 2

The battle continues with politicians acting out and I would say not modeling mature Leadership behavior for their constituents. Joe Wilson, Representative from South Carolina, shouts out and calls the President a liar while Louie Gohmert, Rep from Texas sits in the audience with a protest sign hanging around his neck.

People are clearly very passionate about the issue of healthcare reform but what we are seeing is not a constructive effort to resolve this complex contentious issue but politicians throwing tantrums and exhibiting entitled behavior.

Would you tolerate this in your company? Is this helping to move us closer to a resolution on the issue? I doubt it.

The Healthcare Reform Craziness

The attempts at overhauling our healthcare system are bringing to light some of the serious problems in our political and social system today. Heaven help us!

There are serious financial, quality and fairness issues that require healthcare reform. But I fear the polarizing political situation around this issue may prevent rational discourse and a reasonable solution. Resolving the problem requires engagement, honesty, integrity, collaboration, compromise and innovation. What are we seeing? Politics as usual; or worse.

Most disturbing is the campaign of disinformation and bully tactics occurring at the town hall meetings. Senators and Congressmen are getting shouted down from hysterical people who seem, in many cases, completely misinformed. For example, the whole euthanasia thing...people actually believe the healthcare overhaul solutions being supported will lead to euthanasia. Or the "government takeover" mantra. There are people at these meetings who don't even realize that Medicare is a government program. Is there anyone who would like to do away with Medicare? Probably, but not many. The government backed healthcare option being offered is similar to a Medicare program. Now reasonable people disagree as to whether this is a viable option ...but claiming it represents a government takeover is inaccurate at best and flagrantly dishonest at worse.

We must defuse the emotionality and clarify the real issues. Responsible politicians, healthcare providers and administrators, the insurance industry, community leaders, lobbyists and others need to avoid the incendiary rhetoric and focus on informing people of the facts. We as citizens also need to take responsibility for understanding the issues. Yes, smart people will disagree on what solution is needed. But we require and deserve Leaders with Integrity from all sides of the debate to support a rational process of reform; only then will we move closer to what most of us want--affordable, accessible high quality healthcare for all Americans.

Education and the bumpy road to personal success

I am preparing to attend a high school reunion and shall I say, its been a few years. So thanks to Facebook I am reconnecting with people I knew in high school and haven't seen in quite awhile.
I recently had a telephone conversation with a former classmate, Fernando Nunez aka "Chick" who asked a simple question, "Tell me this...how does a girl who grew up in West Tampa, Florida end up getting a doctorate from Harvard ???". Any readers out there from West Tampa will understand.

While in high school I probably could have been rated "least likely to succeed". I was not the least bit interested in school. I did what I needed to do to get by. I didn't grow up in a house full of books and parents who pushed you to succeed and offered music lessons, tutoring for SATs, etc. College was not an expectation, though it was considered a plus if it happened. So as I entered my senior year of high school and started to look toward the next step I decided maybe college was the best alternative and I enrolled in St. Petersburg Community College. It started out slow; I was taking "general studies" courses that bored me to tears but something clicked when I discovered philosophy and psychology courses and the rest is history. I developed a love of learning that inspired me and led eventually to a doctorate from Harvard.

We have a dilemma: psychology research tells us the best predictor of future behavior is past performance. But how do you account for qualitative leaps or major changes in behavioral patterns? How do you know when a late bloomer is emerging? How do we sift through the economic, class and cultural issues that may mask our ability to detect personal potential?

Obama is putting new emphasis on funding for community colleges and I applaud this effort. However, I recently heard a story on NPR about Houston Community College in which a college administrator commented "....we don't get the best and the brightest here but.....". It bothered me. I thought to myself, how do you know the best and brightest are not lurking within your midst waiting for the opportunity to shine? Who is more impressive, the kid given an admissions coach to get into the elite schools, who attended impressive foreign programs and internships, and had extensive tutoring to get that math SAT score up? Or the less privileged kid who beats the odds by getting through community college while working fulltime and then goes on to excel?

Predicting future performance is not easy but one thing we can do is continue to level the playing field: supporting our community colleges is one way to do this.

The Use and Abuse of 360 Degree Feedback

Multi-rater feedback surveys, also known as 360s, are now standard in many corporations. People are receiving large amounts of feedback from fellow workers on their leadership, management and work style behaviors. These come from peers, direct reports, bosses, sponsors and even clients and customers. The number of 360 assessments available for commercial use is staggering and indeed choosing among them can be a challenge.

If not familiar with the process, it goes something like this: you complete an assessment of your own leadership or management style (or other specialized topic such as emotional intelligence), usually online. You identify a number of other folks such as peers, direct reports, managers, etc and they also complete the survey. You then receive a report which includes mostly anonymous ratings (except for the managers) and you are able to compare your own perceptions to those of others which can give you a good view of your strengths, needed areas of improvement, and potential gaps. 360s can also be administered as customized interview-based assessments.

When administered properly, 360s can be of immense value--you receive feedback that you normally don't get which can help you become a better leader. We all have blind spots and getting the perceptions of others in a confidential format can be highly motivating and instructive. However, if not delivered appropriately, there are dangers. These include: political ratings, negative bashing from someone with an agenda, artificially heightened scores, which feel good but may be misleading, and "data dumps" an overwhelming amount of data delivered without personalized implementation to help you interpret and apply the information.

There are pros and cons to using 360s for performance reviews and I personally do not use them in this way because of the aforementioned potential problems. However, for DEVELOPMENT of your leadership skills, when delivered confidentially, a 360 can be an excellent resource.

BAD feedback can be worse than NO feedback, so before administering any assessment in your company you should consider these questions:

1. What is your ultimate goal? What do you hope to accomplish?
2. Is this the appropriate assessment tool to use?
   
3. Are you using the right implementation strategy ---which includes the process, assessment choice, format and professionals involved in administering the 360.

A clear and thoughtful approach to implementing multi-rater feedback surveys ensures the integrity of the process and the value of the information received.

The social etiquette of social networking

New technologies require new ways of behaving. So it is not surprising that there will be a learning curve. Twitter is my newest adventure and I am still trying to figure out the proper etiquette.

For example, a member of one of my Linked In groups posted a notice "Hey, you can follow me on twitter if you want...we have lots of good info, articles, etc.". So I went to his twitter account to check it out and saw that he was a fairly new member with hundreds of followers (wow), yet he was only following about 12 people. So I thought to myself, this guy obviously thinks he is more interesting than most other people in the world. He goes in search of people to follow HIM, secures a slew of enthusiastic followers, but decides he is really too busy, important, or whatever, to follow them in return. Are you following me here ?

So it seemed a bit arrogant and I said so on the LinkedIn discussion group which, of course, is the wrong thing to do because it made me look like a mean person (as some people seemed to think). And for those of you who are not on LinkedIn or Twitter, you are excused from trying to figure this whole thing out.

So what exactly is the proper etiquette? I am learning. For example, I am learning that every time I Tweet, I pick up a follower or two. And many of these are very interesting and I follow them back; but some aren't, so I don't. And some are just down-right weird, like the guy who's twitter updates consisted of comments such as "I love you" and "oooh baby" and stuff like that. Needless to say, I blocked him, which is another thing you can do in Twitter which seems rude but in some cases, like with this weirdo guy, is probably a good idea.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy being on Twitter and have met very interesting people who I am now following. And I frequently locate a person or group of interest who I decide to follow and I am not at all offended if I don't get a follow back (I really don't expect the Ellen Degeneres Show or NPR to be interested in my tweets).

There is also the situation where you are "invited" into someone's LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, or whatever connection and you think---I really don't want to be connected. I'm not talking about total strangers, but people you know but just don't want in your network.

What do you do now? You can reject them, but that seems awfully harsh, or not respond, which seems to be what most people do. That is hard for me since I am one of those people who prides herself in being responsive. So I have found myself contacting people directly and letting them know I keep my connections to others I know well or have worked closely with....

Yes, new technologies require a new etiquette, so as a guide I think I will just follow the social rules I use in "live" communications and hope for the best.

Listening 101

Sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult. Like active listening. We often think of ourselves as good listeners; but are we really? Or, are we distracted, or disengaged, or just waiting for our turn to speak.

Listening is more than hearing. Consider this: have you ever had the experience of talking to your teenager (or dare I say, spouse) who does not appear to be listening ? You comment "You haven't heard a word I said" only to get the response, "Yes I did you said blah blah blah etc. etc.". Of course, he or she just repeated your words verbatim. Yet, you did not FEEL the person was listening.

Listening is not just about content, but it is about process. It is about making an emotional connection, showing the speaker you are engaged, genuinely interested and involved. Yet in today's world, especially the business setting, we find it difficult to listen as closely as we should. There are many distractions, too many priorities to attend to, and a pace that is hard to keep up with. When we try to listen, we are bombarded by emails, IMs, telephone calls, tweets and all sorts of other stimuli that take our attention away from the human activity we call listening.

Maybe its time we all took a course in Listening 101. It is likely to improve our work productivity and may just make our spouses a little happier too.