Cultivated Coaching

Every few weeks I get asked by leaders about the key areas of focus to improve results and increase effectiveness. Here are a few tactics you can start using today to grow as a leader.

Give it up
Great leaders delegate responsibilities. To delegate is to entrust a task or responsibility to another person. Think about the word “entrust” in that definition. It may seem much quicker/easier/more successful to do everything yourself, but you’ll never get out from under the work and focus on your unique leadership skills if you don’t delegate. What’s more, your team will stagnate if they aren’t given challenging tasks and the opportunity to own something. Be sure to provide your team clear direction, guidance, and the necessary resources. Then get out of their way!

Let them make mistakes
Even the best team members will make mistakes, just like you have. If you want to encourage them to make decisions, let them know it is okay to make mistakes; because a mistake is not a loss, there is always something to learn from it.

Not about you
If you believe leadership is about results and that results ultimately come from the cooperation and collaboration of others, it makes sense that leadership is less about the leader and more about the followers. No leader can achieve anything by herself. She does it by working with others to achieve intended goals. Therefore, anything you can do to affect the relationship positively between leader and team members throughout the organization is critically important.

Focus on the customer
You know that show Undercover Boss? There hasn’t been a single episode where the CEO had the experience of a foot soldier and didn’t go back to corporate with some significant changes. If you don’t deliver exceptional value to your clients, your business will suffer. It’s that simple. Therefore, revisit and refine your processes and your value proposition with your team on a regular basis. The more they understand it, the better they’ll be at executing on it. Spend between 20-25% of your time focused on the customer.

Invest in YOU
Leaders must give people reasons to follow their lead. Looking, feeling, and being the part of leader inside and out goes a long way. Take care of yourself. Dress well. Be organized. Arrive on time. Invest in and update your look. Instill great dietary and exercise habits. Look great. Feel great. Be great. Even if you need to rely on a team of experts to get these results, enlisting the help of an organizer, trainer, or stylist will pay off when you show yourself to the world.

Watch your expressions
Often leaders have no idea how they look until someone, like an executive coach or a trusted advisor, pulls them aside. So lighten up. Say something positive at least once a day. Before an important meeting, sit down, think a calming thought and even check yourself in the mirror. And smile. It will reduce the tension in your face.

Self actualization
Maximize your abilities in the capacity you seek now. Know your strengths, and focus on building them up even stronger to become more of who you are, and everything you are capable of becoming.

- Janice Pollard and Jackie Trepanier

‘Tis the season! You have parties, shopping, cooking — and don’t forget your job. Here are a few tips for putting some balance, while keeping the cheer, in your holiday season.

TIP 1: Learn from the Cleavers

Put family first when you’re home. Leave work at a decent time, and leave THE work at the office. Make quality-time dates with your family or significant other after dinner to distract you from your to-do list. The work will always be there in the morning. Savor your at-home time while you can. This goes for your kids, too! Make dinnertime phone-free and take time to reconnect.

TIP 2: Act like a 2-year old

That is, learn the value of saying “no.” (Except, unlike a 2-year-old, you don’t need to repeat the word over and over.) Next time you’re invited to something, weigh the benefits and costs before saying yes. If the event or project will have a positive impact on your personal life, productivity, career, and networking without disrupting your non-work schedule, go for it. If your personal life will suffer because of it, opt out.

TIP 3: “It’s not you, it’s me…”

Break up with activities that sap your time or energy. Take stock of things that aren’t really enhancing your career or personal life and minimize the time you spend on them.

You may even be able to leave work earlier if you make a conscious effort to limit the time you spend on the web and social media sites, making personal calls, or checking your bank balance.

TIP 4: Build your team

Rethink your errands and consider whether you can outsource any of these time-consuming chores. Even if you’re on a tight budget, you may discover that the time you’ll save will make it worth it. Plus, there are plenty of kids who are trying to earn money.  Help them help you!

- Order your groceries online and have them delivered

- Hire a kid down the street to rake your yard

- Have your dry cleaning picked up and dropped off at your home or office

- Order your stamps online, saving a trip to the post office

While focusing on your balance during the holiday season, don’t forget to reward yourself.  Take a half day to catch a movie, read, or enjoy a cozy afternoon by the fire.

- Janice Pollard and Jackie Trepanier

What’s an easy way to discover the work you love to do? Grab a piece of paper for me, will ya? (Or, open Excel and start formatting Column A and B with fancy fonts.)

In column A write “What do I love to do?”

In column B write:  ”How do I do it?”

Now, start filling in the list. For example, maybe you wrote, “I love to design” in column A.

In column B you might have things like, “I create invitations for friends,” or “I make killer Powerpoint slides.” Keep going as long as possible in both columns.

Now step back and take a look. See any themes?

Next, add a third column: “How can I do more of what I love?” Brainstorm a list of ways, whether as a hobby or a job, that you can do more of what you love. What two things from that list can you accomplish in 2012? What are the smallest steps you can take to make them happen?

- Janice Pollard and Jackie Trepanier

The 80s band Wilson Phillips says if you hold on for one more day, things will go your way. Is that really true? Does stuff go your way without you even trying? Maybe sometimes. But if you’re someone who has put a job change, advanced degree, or business idea on hold until things “get better,” when is that time exactly? There’s always an expert to your left and an expert on your right to define when things will turn around. Maybe the best expert to answer that is YOU.

Now is the time to shift from holding on to moving on. A dicey economy can be a great time for trying new things. Whether it’s a new career, learning different skills, changing your lifestyle, starting a business, or pursuing the direction of your dreams, why wait? No one can change your life except for you … (sorry, couldn’t resist).

What one step will you take this week to shift from holding on to moving on?

(Don’t be mad if that Wilson Phillips song is in your head the rest of the day.)

- Janice Pollard and Jackie Trepanier

How often have you found yourself in a discussion with someone, which soon became heated or downright personal? You both left feeling spun up, wounded, and frustrated. What was it about? How did you feel after? The fact is, even at work, heated discussions happen.

Where there’s heat there’s likely misunderstanding. Your disagreement could have been about anything but the intended topic. For all you (and your enemy forces) know, you were arguing about the color yellow.  It can likely be that far off the intended topic.

Next time a discussion goes awry, think about what happened and what it was about. If it became more about “yellow,” try reframing the discussion and talk again.

- Janice Pollard and Jackie Trepanier