The Coaching Manager Tweddle Group

"Leadership is about growth - for yourself, your relationships, your productivity, and your people. To lead well, you must embrace your need for continual improvement"

"The very best leaders are always able to inspire their employees to remain loyal, hard working, and enthusiastic."

A new series of studies from researchers at Michigan State University indicate bosses who were supportive and set clear expectations can effectively motivate their employees, even if they weren't described as "transformational leaders" or having "grand visions."

When we listen with all of ourselves, we engage our ears, eyes, mind, heart and body to actively listen to the client.  We have a greater possibility of hearing the depth, meaning and possible future of the client's present experience. Effective listening is freeing, spontaneous, intuitive and open to provide the space for the client to develop their gifts and strengths.

Empathy and compassion are the products of listening with the "heart." This form of listening is non-judgemental, present and powerful.

Becoming a more likeable leader is completely under your control, and it's a matter of emotional intelligence (EQ). Unlike innate, fixed characteristics, such as your intelligence (IQ), EQ is a flexible skill that you can improve with effort.

As a leader, everything you do is contagious. If you are discouraged, pessimistic, or lacking in energy, people will feel it. The organization will reflect it. It will spread faster than an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The study is called "The Skills Workers Say Management Needs To Improve Most," from Robert Half. 1,000 workers (non-managers) were simply asked the question: "Which skill do you think your manager needs to improve most?" The results:

Communication/diplomacy - 30%

Technical expertise - 18%

Leadership - 17%

Strategic thinking - 14%

Project management - 8%

Other - 14%.

The ability to manage people is the foundation of organizational success. Test your management skills by taking quiz.

Some self-promotion for Jhana in this article, but good insight too.

One second can be the difference between achieving desired results or not. One second is all it takes to become less reactive and more in tune with the moment. In that one second lies the opportunity to improve the way you decide and direct, the way you engage and lead. That's an enormous advantage for leaders in fast-paced, high-pressure jobs.

Here are five easily implemented tips to help you become more mindful:

Put it on your calendar. Schedule a check-in with yourself every two weeks to assess how well you're doing with the previous four tips, or as a reminder to revisit this article to refresh your memory. Consider engaging one of your peers to do the same thing. This gives you a chance to assess each other, which can be both helpful and motivating.

The steps you may want to follow are:

Work with your coachee on enunciating their values. What are the things that are really important to them? You could choose to use a psychometric instrument, but I find reflecting on key incidents and episodes in a coachee's life can be just as powerful.
Help them enunciate their purpose. Fundamentally, what is the reason for their existence? Watch out here. At a first try, a coachee may tend to put down a purpose that may not be very challenging and may cover only a part of what's important to them. Link the conversation here back to values and push your coachee towards a higher purpose existence statement-something that will really make a difference to the largest possible number of people and that has the power to energize your coachee even in really low times!
Draw the key areas that the coachee would like to focus on. What should they do (or indeed not do) to achieve the purpose? You might work with a finite time that the coachee is comfortable with here (I find coachees tend to choose a three-to-five year time frame most frequently). As always, stay with three-to-four key areas that broadly work towards moving the coachee meaningfully towards their purpose.
Work with your coachee around behavioral traits or behaviors that will align with their values and help them deliver on their purpose. Again, limit the coachee to key behaviors; getting the coachee to make a choice among key behaviors can, in itself, be a very powerful conversation.
Build systems of accountability to keep the coachee on track. These could be milestones or promises to individuals who are important to the coachee or a combination of both.

Five Things Most Leaders Are In Denial About:

* What their employees know

* What their employees want

* Their control over their department

* The degree to which their employees trust and respect them

* Their own feelings of fear and powerlessness

For fun, try this. Close your eyes for a moment, and imagine yourself taking the point of view of one of your employees. Once you reach that point, ask yourself: "As an employee, what do I want?" Then take the time to ask yourself: "As an employee, what do I fear?"

Your excuses are myriad. It's faster if I do it myself. I have a particular way I want things done. It's cheaper than paying someone to do it for me even if the results aren't the same. Whatever your reason, you're  stubbornly loathe to delegate even the most basic or the most time-consuming of undertakings. If you're a dyed-in-the-wool control freak, you may be reluctant to confront the true costs of refusing to delegate, but rest assured they exist. If you're hoarding responsibilities like a secret cache of white truffles, the person you're really hurting is yourself.

Excellent questions!

What many industry leaders have caught on to is that our demanding business world still needs managers, but in a role being reshaped by new workplace trends. To stay on top, companies must reassess the responsibilities of their managers and train them to effectively manage the modern workforce.

Making the move from coworker to department manager was a tricky transition because, as the new manager, Margo was responsible for the productivity and results of her department. Oftentimes, former coworkers, either because of jealousy or out of habit, didn't want to treat her as the boss - they wanted to continue treating her as one of the peer group. Here are 7 tips for making the transition easier: