Time is Money

Whether in a matrix organization with different functions and bosses, in a job that combines project work with team management or as a entrepreneur with too many opportunities to pursue, most of us are pulled in too many directions at once. You may have set a resolution to get your time under control, yet one month into the year, the fires seem to be burning hotter than ever before. Here are a few tips for taking back your time.

Look at your professional time in terms of Return on Investment (ROI). Some efforts provide a quick fast return, others are an investment with returns to be delivered in the future. Too often, though, we spend our time on efforts that use up our precious time and reap little or no reward. Standard financial axioms include set your priorities, create a plan and track yourself against it, cut back on waste, don't procrastinate on taking action, allow for the unexpected, invest in the future, and get help.

The challenge is that time remains a fixed budget - it doesn't accrue, you can't grow it with investment - but you can make choices on what you do, when you do them and what you can stop doing.

Is Coaching a Fad?

With so many organizations rushing to develop programs for managers as coaches, is coaching turning into a fad?

A recent presentation sponsored by the Human Capital Institute, and given by Peyton Daniel and Anne Doster of DBM gave the statistics that over 80% of the respondents to their survey used "coaching skills training" at least sometimes, and nearly 70% were using external executive coaches at least sometimes. Now, survey samples are notoriously, so we don't want you to conclude that coaching is, as yet, that prevalent. But could it be well on its way to becoming too fashionable for its own good? The perquisite to go with the corner office? The emblem of the high-potential? The consultant's favorite gig?

Before we dismiss coaching and mentoring as another passing fad, let's look at more closer what current research is showing us about executive coaching.

• Executive coaching is found increasingly on a routine basis for C-level execs, and both less frequently and less often for senior executives; and almost never for non-managers.
  
• The primary drivers for coaching are:
  • Derailed executives
  • Enabling capable executives to achieve greater excellence
  • Supporting the development of high-potential employees
  • Improving team effectiveness
• Executive cite benefits for coaching to include
  • Continuous one-on-one attention
  • Expanded thinking through dialogue with a curious outsider
  • Increased self-awareness, including blind spots
  • Personal accountability for development
  • Effective learning delivered just-in-time
• Coaching failures are linked to
  • Lack of commitment from the client
  • Lack of clear goals and purpose
  • Client too busy to focus on developmental goals
  • A mismatch between client and coach
  • Client's manager is not involved or supporting
• ROI ranges from the value of the coaching investment up to more than 500% depending on study cited
  
• Successful coaching engagements have:
  • Coach evaluation including
    • Coaching methodology
    • Senior-level business, industry and/or functional experience
    • Chemistry with client
    • Measurement system
  • A willing client
    • Open to increasing their self-awareness and enhancing their personal growth
      
    • Entering coaching with enthusiasm, interest and a commitment of time
  • Measure the ROI of all coaching assignments using
    • Achievement of agreed-upon objectives, including performance metrics as appropriate
    • Evaluations by client, clients boss, and coach
    • 360 assessments
      
  • Clear expectations around the process from initial meeting, overall time commitment (typical agreements are 4 to 6 months, twice per month), confidentiality, and management support and involvement

David B. Peterson, in a chapter on Coaching and Mentoring Programs, adds depth to this research report by outlining the major assumptions around effective coaching. His assumptions about positive, proactive coaching are modified and included below.

• People are motivated to learn and grow; the coach's role is to clarify and engage that motivation
• Insight is ever-evolving and should be developed through the coaching process, whether initiated with a current situation or a 360 assessment
• While coach can and does provide feedback, the main goal of the coaching is to enable the client to gather and gain their own insights
• Coaches should be expert in helping people learn how to change and adjust their behaviors to become more effective, with a goal of enhancing ongoing learning and development
• Coaching is about achieving results by working on the areas of greatest leverage and payback.

The executive coaching methodology practiced at Read Solutions Groups is then to provide customized coaching that moves iteratively through the following steps:

• Clarify personal goals, values and motivations
• Develop insights into what needs to be developed
• Establish and agree to measures for success
• Evaluate reasons for and barriers to change
• Explore or chose alternative ways of behaving
• Practice new skills and behaviors
• Develop action plan and measure progress, watching for additional insights
• Ensure that other people and structures are put in place to support progress and ongoing feedback

So, is coaching a fad? Studies, whether focused on feedback from executives, clients or HR, point to solid returns on the investment of coaching when the systems employ recommendations like those above.

Email us to receive references to additional studies on executive coaching.

Steps in Building a Strong Team

There are three key steps to building a strong team.

1. Own the development process

A strong leader holds himself or herself accountability for the development of others. Research suggests that the most successful leaders, over the long-term, spend upwards of 50% of their time focused on the issues of their team and the people in the organizations. Beyond time, the strong leader holds others accountable for development - requiring measures, reports and an equal focus on the development and leadership of talent in an organization. Finally, the organization must build systems, process and rigor that support the identification, develop and measurement of talent and talent development.

2. Balance the use of internal and external candidates

Internal candidates, too often, are hampered by the very fact that they are known quantities. Their history, their past blunders, their flaws are all part of the corporate stories. Rather than being looked at from the perspective of current competencies and results, old stories reflecting old news are resurrected as evidence of an incomplete package. External candidates bring a patina of freshness, and packaging focusing on their strengths and accomplishments. Hidden underneath this packaging lurk questions about flaws, motivations, and cultural fit. While systems exist to reduce these risks, failure to integrate at more senior levels carries both high risk and a high impact on the organization.

3. Knit together complementary team skills

Each person brings their own strengths and limitations to the team. While the first step is to recognize these differences, and to staff the team with complementary skills, the successful leader knits the team together. With a clear understanding of each other's strengths, a strong vision for the future, a clear expectation for how the team are to work together, and a culture that supports and rewards working together to achieve goals, a leader can create a strong team that complements and supports one another.

To assess yourself, your team or your organization, consider the following:

• Does your team know their strengths?
• Has the organization defined metrics and targets for people development?
• Are there systems for identifying, developing and measuring talent?
• Is there a staffing plan that balances internal development and staffing with external hires?
• Are there established expectations about how teams work together?
• Is there an environment where working together is encouraged and rewarded?

Read Solutions Group works with organizations and leaders to develop an understanding of the business and organizational challenges, develop the direction appropriate for the culture and size of the organization, provide focused targeted training and/or facilitated workshops, and support the delivery of a solution. Whether one-on-one with key leaders or working hand-in-hand with your leadership team, Sherry Read will stimulate the creative thought processes to generate a wider range of practical, value-adding solutions to business, managerial and human resource issues.

Tackling the Derailer of Arrogance

Why is arrogance a problem? You are successful; you may even be the Managing Director or CEO. Why would you, of all people, need to worry that not being open to feedback, introspection or personal growth could derail your career? The 2003 book, Why CEOs Fail by D.L. Dotlich and P.C. Cairo identifies arrogance - the belief that you're right and everyone else is wrong - as one of the leading causes of executive faillure. If it can bring down whole companies, what effect could it be having on your career?

What are the behaviors that could lead to derailment? The arrogant leader may be self-confident to the point of making other feel inferior. By limiting or dismissing the input of others, the arrogant leader may miss or discount crucial information. He may seem self-absorbed, aloof and cold, bruising the egos of others on their team. She may been seen as too independent, promoting her own careers and success over others.

How do you change? Change begins with self-awareness. Replay your mental tapes of earlier discussions about your style. Look carefully at the behaviors you portray at home where there may be more direct feedback. Have a 360 assessment done. Watch the reactions of others. Look for signs that your relationships are not what you believe them to be. Challenge your belief that your arrogance has supported your success.

Change requires that you begin to be curious about what others think; that you seek and accept feedback, holding tight against the natural tendency to defend and explain. Consider enlisting a confidant, coach or trusted colleague who can give you objective feedback, and help you assess and monitor your progress.

Look at situations where you've encountered significant roadblocks or failure, and write down the answers to the following questions:

1. What would your worst critics say contributed to the situations?
2. What behaviors did you use when you were stuck or close to failure?
3. What signals did you miss?

With your trusted partner, identify the patterns of behavior that have supported your success, and also led to your difficulties.

The biggest adjustment in behavior comes in seeking, listening to and responding with sincere interest and curiousity to other's views and opinions. As Marshall Goldsmith advises, leave out of your conversation the words, no, but, and however, and add the words thank you. You may be surprised what you learn.

Seven Career Derailers

"What is a career derailer?" you ask. Imagine if you will a successful professional, receiving promotions and raises with incredible frequency. The titles get better and a team leader role follows. Then a manager, and a department manager. And then something happens. Questions begin to be asked about whether she can build a team, whether he can think strategically, whether she has what it takes. That fast track career has stalled, or worse yet, fallen off the tracks - a career derailed. This set of seven behaviors are among the ones most commonly seen in derailing a career.

• Believing that skill and results are the sole keys to success
• Being arrogant and not open to feedback, introspection and personal growth
• Consistently acknowledging yourself for the successes and blaming others for the failures
• Failing to staff and develop a strong team
• Lack of composure
• Unwilling to adapt to change and compromise
  
• Inability to develop a strong professional network, internal and external to the organization

Research indicates that leaders who are open to feedback, introspection and personal growth can, and do, learn to overcome these potential career stallers.