The Coaching Manager Tweddle Group

Doing so necessitates the persons at the bottom of the hill absorb more responsibility, while the people at the top of the hill get their hands dirtier.  Essentially, a leveling of the mechanisms that cause the flow is necessary.  Here's some tips on how to make that happen:

The author offered the following 10 steps that I thought seemed to encapsulate the principles of Leadership while still respecting people:

The movie clip is a bit rough in its language and I'm not sure I agree with its tone, but I think the article does highlight some critical aspects of culture change, coaching and mentoring.

What stuck with me most was his take on leadership-he rejected typical competency models, preferred Robert Greenleaf's "servant leader" concept, and defined the role of a leader in such a simple way that I have not only never forgotten it, but also adopted as my de facto definition. "The role of a leader," he maintained, is to create meaningful change." To create is to bring into existence something that was not there before. Meaningful relates to action that is purposeful, that connects us to something larger, outside of ourselves, in service of others. And in that context, change is something new, different and better.

Han Solo (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Climbing the corporate ladder - or figuring out when to jump off - has never been harder. Luckily you can learn everything you need to know from the ultimate business renegade: a the spice smuggler from Corellia who became a general, and saved a galaxy.

Good Coaching advice

A recent complaint we received from a manager: "I do my job, I get my results, and no one has to chase me down or manage me. Well my employees are also 'big boys and girls' and should be able to get results: I pay them top salaries, they were hired because of their competence and expertise, I trust and expect them to get things done. But when things become critical, or go wrong, no one steps up and takes responsibility and delivers results! I don't know what to do!" Like most of us, you're probably nodding your head thinking "I know exactly what that feels like". But before we get too far into lamenting our problems, let's take a look at how "the box" may be distorting this

Do you assume that it's your boss who sets the tone in your relationship? If so, test that assumption. Almost certainly, you have more ability than you think to shape how you work together. After all, it's a relationship of mutual dependence. You each need the other to succeed. Unless your boss is a psychopath or truly irrational, this interdependence is a foundation on which you can take steps to build something mutually beneficial.

If you want to improve as a Coach­ing Leader, ask more questions. Our team­mates are always more likely to make dif­fi­cult changes and improve­ments if they are the ones that cre­ate their own solu­tions and plans. We lead­ers will become more effec­tive as coaches if we give more thought to the ques­tions we ask than the answers we give. Here is a great rule of thumb for you as you go into your one-on-ones with your direct reports: Your speak­ing to lis­ten­ing ratio should be 25/75. Focus your 25 per­cent on ask­ing chal­leng­ing and clar­i­fy­ing ques­tions that help your team­mate to come up with their own answers - which should take up 75 per­cent of the coach­ing session. When we lead­ers mas­ter this, our team­mates per­for­mance is guar­an­teed to improve.

I tried, but, apparently, we cannot like something twice (double like?)!

Here are four spe­cific musts do's that can absolutely increase your level of pas­sion and your direc­tion which will enable you to con­tinue to grow your capac­ity.

Take a good look at your Busi­ness Vision. As you read it, are you find­ing your­self excited and com­pelled to con­tinue push­ing for­ward and giv­ing your all to the cause? If your vision does not com­pel you, then how can you expect it to com­pel those you lead to stretch and grow?
If it com­pels you, the next ques­tion you must ask is this: "can I plan from it?" If you vision is not clear, it will be very dif­fi­cult to build plans and strat­egy from it. Your vision should help you to see who your cus­tomer is, what value you will bring to them, what prob­lem your team, ser­vice or prod­uct will help solve. It should help you to see what your team will become and what you will build at some point in the future.
Now look at your Busi­ness Plans for the year and the quar­ter. Your desired out­comes, dis­ci­plines and improve­ments must be very clear. These three things should fit on one page and should truly direct your actions and impact your calendar.
And then finally, if you have done the pre­vi­ous three things and are still not see­ing things clearly, you are wise to under­stand that self lead­er­ship always pre­cedes team lead­er­ship. Your chal­lenge might be deeper and big­ger than what is hap­pen­ing voca­tion­ally. You could really ben­e­fit by spend­ing a day review­ing or build­ing your Life Plan. An effec­tive plan is com­pelling and clear in how it directs your think­ing, your actions and ulti­mately your results.

Getting honest, useful feedback is an important part of any project or career. Of course, positive feedback is awesome because it motivates you to keep up the good work. Negative feedback can be painful to hear, but if you can swallow your pride, it presents the opportunity to improve what you're working on.

Are the people who work for you a real team?

It's easy to extol teamwork, but not every group is a team. In fact, most teams we see, aren't - because their managers focus on building the most effective relationships they can with each individual who works for them.

When I ask a question, I lose some control, as all the potential answers can never be known. However, it's only when I let go of controlling the client seeing the world exactly as I do, or learning in the exact sequence I think they should, and instead ask questions to help them begin to see their own world differently, that transformation can occur.

The problem is by simply removing the monkey from their back the employee learns nothing which is one of the most important jobs of a leader - to teach. So, the morale of the story is this… when someone comes to you with a problem don't steal their monkey.

"The best managers are those who have an appetite for learning and are willing to work on themselves." - From " Becoming a Manager " by Linda A.Hill