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Author: Tina Greenbaum

Categories
Growth Personal Development

It’s That Time Again

Motivation is high. Here come the New Year’s Resolutions

Yet, statistics say that 1/3 of resolutions don’t make it past the first 3 weeks in January.

While we are hyper-focused on achieving our goal at the onset of the new year, we tend to lose that level of focus – and our commitment to change becomes diluted.

How can we improve the odds – so when the next new year comes around, we’ll have that new habit firmly in place and can move on to a different challenge in our journey of personal growth?

 

Neuroplasticity[1] (defined as the brain’s ability to change by strengthening or weakening neural activity and connections…to reorganize itself throughout life) can give us some answers. To make a complicated topic more accessible, I like to think of the process of change from the perspective of two laws.

 

The first is called Hebb’s Law[2]. It states that neurons that “fire together wire together.” In other words, when we are laser focused on one particular object or thought or action over and over again, we begin to strengthen the new neural pathways that will become, over time, automatic. This is the foundational process by which the brain changes and organizes itself.

 

The second concept comes from Quantum Physics, called the Observer Effect. [3]This theory establishes that the very act of “watching” can change our reality. This concept is the basis of Mindfulness (defined as “Noticing, in the present moment without judgement).”

 

So, if we put these two laws together, Hebb’s law – which works through mental focusing and holding our attention, and the Quantum physics law of “watching” to change matter, we end up with creating new neural firings and new neural connections, which translates into creating new behavioral habits, which is the ultimate goal of our New Year’s Resolutions.

 

Bringing this down to a very practical level, let’s see how this can work for you.

 

To get started:

  1. Pick a challenge that you would like to declare as your New Year’s Resolution. I recommend you pick one – that if you were to accomplish it – would have a significant impact on your life.
  1. Being truthfully honest with yourself, on a scale of 1-10, rate your level of commitment to change. I guarantee, if it’s not an 8 or higher, your chances of success are minimal. In a ceremonial way, say to yourself, [4]“I choose to_______”.

If your intention if very clear and your “why” is bigger than your desire for immediate gratification, then victory is in your grasp.

For example, let’s say you want to train yourself to exercise in the morning before you eat your breakfast. Your doctor tells you it’s important for your health.  For years, your habit is to get up, get in the shower, then to have your breakfast. This is how you are wired. Every night you remind yourself that you want to exercise in the morning. You get up, you shower, and then have your breakfast—only to remember when you’re having your breakfast that you didn’t exercise. The third morning, you remember while you’re in the shower that you didn’t exercise. You leave yourself a note on the shower door…and by the fifth morning, you remember to exercise before you get into the shower. As you watch your behavior and leave yourself clues, you get quicker and quicker at remembering your goal, which was to exercise, until you’ve created a new routine. Typically, it takes 30 to 40 days to create a new habit which means it takes 30 to 40 days to create the new neural pathway.

  1. Have an accountability buddy. If you’ve made many attempts in the past and have not been able to sustain your commitment to yourself, find someone who will support you in this journey. A quick call or text is all you need to touch base.

The only thing we can count on in life is change, yet human nature resists change on many levels. Understanding your own resistance to change and how it manifests in your life is valuable information as a leader of self and a leader of others – and may require further investigation.  But if you are serious about moving the needle on some old habits, getting laser focused on what you want to achieve and observing yourself without judgement are a winning combination.

 

 

[1] https://www.medicinenet.com/neuroplasticity/definition.htm

[2] https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3902

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)

2 https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3902

Categories
Best Practices Body Language Culture Health and Wellness Human Resources Management Skills Women In Business

Important and Urgent

Right before the pandemic hit, I was speaking to a highly-regarded CEO about how I help business leaders up-level their game as it pertains to stress management. She was intrigued, but ultimately said, “You know, what you do is important, but not urgent (referring to the Eisenhower Matrix, a simple decision-making tool that helps you prioritize tasks).”

Almost two years to the day, managing stress and the consequences of not managing it well, have finally captured our attention. Mental health, wellness, work-life balance, burnout, depression, anxiety, and sadly suicide have become all too common in our everyday lives. Here in the US, we’ve plummeted down the world rankings for happiness.

But what does that mean for employers in the coming year? If you haven’t heard the term “The Great Resignation,” it’s important you do.

According to the Harvard Business Review, more than 9 million global employees quit their jobs in July 2021. And of them, the largest share went to the 30-to-45-year-old bracket. Unsurprising as this average age of new managers, carrying a large amount of stress and usually the least equipped to deal with it.

There are many complicating reasons for this exodus, but according to the study: “many of these workers may have simply reached a breaking point after months and months of high workloads, hiring freezes, and other pressures, causing them to rethink their work and life goals(https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation).”

In my 38 years as a mental health professional, my most engaged clients have been those between the ages of 30 and 45. They’ve lived past their 20’s when they thought they knew everything. And haven’t yet reached their 50’s where again, they will think they know everything.

It’s a time of growth when the existential meaning of life is most compelling. This generation, in particular, is hungry to learn, purpose-driven, and doesn’t want to wait until retirement to start enjoying what the world has to offer.

Given that we are living in unprecedented times, we must all pay attention to the underlying forces at play and the real costs of ignoring them. These issues are complicated and not easy to solve. Yet, if we don’t address them, our continued spiral towards an unhappy society will rage on.

To be very specific, when stress hormones flood the body and the brain, a person’s executive functioning goes “offline.” The desire may be there, but the capacity is not. Much has been said and written about focusing on the “whole person.” But what does that look like from an employer’s perspective?

1. Good mental health is not intuitive – it’s learned. Stress relief apps, office yoga, massage gift cards, etc. They are helpful, but not sufficient in building the kind of internal resiliency needed to cope with our current stressors. Picture bringing a plastic fork to a gunfight. Management teams need real skills and proven methods for managing staff happiness.

2. Peak Performance is predictable and repeatable. Again, one needs to understand how both the body and mind work to achieve these highly productive states. To achieve a sustainable workflow while operating in high-stress environments, one needs to be properly equipped.

3. Mind, Body, Spirit, and Emotion. These four pillars comprise a whole system and thus, a whole person. Pay attention to them and your team will notice. I can’t guarantee these methods will make you their favorite boss, but I can guarantee that you will be setting them up for success both inside your organization and for life.

The last few years have provided us with great challenges and even greater opportunities. It would be a shame to let this time of introspection pass by without making genuine change for the better. When the calendar rolls around to 2022, do you want to find yourself repeating negative thought patterns? Neither does your team.

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Being Driven in the Workplace

Being Driven in the Workplace

What drives you in the workplace? A friend of mine told me about the advice he got when he first sought help to manage his out-of-control Type A Behavior. After filling out the usual forms, the doctor asked, “How may I help you?” My friend replied, “I don’t know where to begin.” The doctor wisely said, “Pull any loose thread—it’s all one knot.”

Aspects of Type A Behavior include a sense of urgency, impatience, competitiveness, and being easily upset. Of those four behaviors, two of them—impatience and upset—aren’t hard-wired, don’t serve you, and can easily be controlled.

You’ve heard many people talk about the “fight or flight response.” We are hard-wired to look for danger and threats. Anything that sets off an alarm in our lizard brain will trigger a physical reaction. And an emotional reaction, as well. We see the emotional reactions of people around us all the time. We probably notice our own emotional reactions, as well. Even if we don’t like to admit it.

There is nothing to be ashamed or afraid of. It is all part of being human. But the people we most admire have the ability to manage the emotions and physical sensations at the moment.

Top Athletes Know-How 

One of our pleasures in Mastery Under Pressure is working with top athletes. We love helping them defeat their hardest opponent: Themselves. We often see top athletes sabotage themselves with their own thoughts and doubts. But the very elite performers have one indispensable skill: They have learned how to let it go. 

Do world-class athletes lose their tempers? All the time. In every sport. Whether it’s a tennis racquet smashed on the net or a baseball bat was thrown in disgust, we have all witnessed the best players lose their cool. But by the next point or their next at-bat, it’s as if it never happened. The best performers learn how to let it go in the moment.

Take Back Control at the Workplace

Being driven in the workplace doesn’t mean you have to let your Type A tendencies take control. Learn from the pros: Are you confused, upset, distressed, annoyed, or any of a hundred different emotions? Is work feeling more stressful these days? Tune into your body. What are you feeling and where are you feeling it? 

Is there a knot in your stomach? Do not avoid the sensation. Focus on it. What does that knot look like? Where is it located? Is it deep in your gut—or closer to your heart? Can you breathe into it? Take a deep breath and picture the air you inhale going right to the knot. Notice the knot loosen. And notice your mind calm down as well. If you start to tune into your own body, you will change the way you think and feel.

 

________

Download the Free Professional Coaching  Corporate Preview

 

Search our hashtags for more information: #masteryunderpressure #makeyourbestbetter

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Mastering Pressure as a Professional…The Olympic Way

Mastering Pressure as a Professional...The Olympic Way

There are an extraordinary number of lessons to be learned about the human psyche from this year’s Olympic Games. The first—and probably most important—is that even the world’s best have their limits. There was an excellent article in last week’s NYTimes acknowledging Simone for her courage to walk away. A path is first shown to her by Michael Phelps just before RIO 2016. But I want to talk about the lesson those moments have for all of us on a personal level.

When you yell at your kids, you know (too late) it’s not really them. When you misread a business situation or negotiation, you know (too late) you lost your inner control. When you judge (or pre-judge) a date or loved one, you know (too late) “it’s not them.” In our Mastery Under Pressure program, you master the tools and techniques to put aside those inner doubts, old demons, and unproductive thoughts that are getting in your way on a day-to-day level.  But no matter how good you get at self-control, we’re all human—and the ultimate mastery is to know when you’ve reached your limits.

 

Too Smart for His Own Good

One of our associates raced cars in his teens and 20s, and one day he just stopped. When he was asked why, he said, “I was too smart for my own good. While most of the time I could focus on the event, every once in a while I would think about what I was doing and what could happen. If you want to master anything, you can’t be thinking about what failure would mean.”

 

True Mastery Means Knowing Your Own Limits 

Everyone—from the CEO in the corner office to the tennis champion on the center court—comes up against their limits. So how do you know? First, you recognize those limits are coming from inside, not any external circumstances. Think about just a few of the ways we encounter obstacles or distractions. Mastery Under Pressure is about putting aside our inner doubts and handling the situation. But there are signs we give ourselves that should be a signal that we’re approaching (or exceeding) our limits:

  • lack of sleep
  • relationships suffering
  • kids being angry at you for not being there
  • colleagues being disappointed
  • physical ailments
  • addictions to food, drugs, alcohol
  • your mind doesn’t shut off
  • you’re not making good decisions
  • you lack confidence in the decisions you are making

Almost all of those are ways we and the world around us try to tell ourselves that we’re either reaching our limits or we’ve headed down the wrong path. That’s the moment when the ultimate expression of mastery has to come forward: You have to know when to stop. That’s the Olympic way.

 

Making Healthy Olympic-Like Choices

Again, I salute those athletes who’ve stepped up and stepped away, saying, “No mas!” Forty years ago, the boxer Roberto Duran uttered those words to the referee as he quit in the middle of his world championship bout with Sugar Ray Leonard. 40 years ago, the few voices that acknowledged what he did were drowned out by the scorn our culture and our society heaped upon Duran. We’ve come a long way. And we have further to go. It’s worth noting that every Olympic athlete who’s walked away (so far) has been competing as an individual athlete, not as a member of a team. There are probably a few of those who would like to stop but don’t want to let their teammates down. We hope the day will come when they will have the courage to do so…and all of us will acknowledge them, not judge them. 

Until then, I invite all of you to keep making Your Best, Better!

________

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Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Improving Professionalism in the Workplace

Improving Professionalism in the Workplace

Professionalism in the workplace is a moving target. If you’re a high performer in your field, you probably don’t know where your talent comes from. You could list the great teachers and advisors and mentors you had along the way, but all they taught you were the skills. Your talent? That’s innate. It comes from someplace inside yourself. A special gift you have that enables you to zig when others zag and often come out a winner. 

If you’ve thought about it at all, you probably have a theory about it. You believe because you do A, then B happens—even if there’s no logical reason or proof that A and B are connected. But because you’re at the top of your game, you’re afraid tinkering with any part of who you are, and what you do will damage or diminish your “special gift.” 

There’s nothing wrong with being a high performer. Companies actively recruit the best people in each division looking for those shining leaders. But just about every company has at least one Top Performer who’s also a Pain in the Butt. These are the top executives who wreak havoc with their team and the organization because they are afraid altering that behavior might impact their performance. Being great at what you do doesn’t make you a great professional.

There is no shortage of signs like a high turnover rate in their department or maybe an occasional complaint to HR. Maybe some water cooler (or these days, Zoom) grumbling among your peers or your direct reports. If you don’t believe us, read your company evaluations on Glassdoor or Indeed or any site where employees and former employees can anonymously post comments. 

Once you investigate why someone lacks professionalism in the workplace, it will always be their relationship to pressure. And their inability to handle it outside their area of total confidence. 

Pressure Isn’t Part of the Job

Some of us feel pressure when we have to relate to other people. Some of us feel pressure when our workload exceeds our usual quota. Some of us—well, there are literally dozens of ways pressure arises. And probably even more so this past year in the face of unprecedented unexpected events.

Show us “pressure.” Was it in the recruitment ad? Did HR mention “pressure” when they were doing talent acquisition or developing recruiting strategies? They talk around it by saying things like “you can handle the job,” or “are you up for the challenges?” What they’re saying is that they believe you can handle any pressure that arises. But what is it?

We Fear the Unknown

The reason abnormal times cause us so much distress is because we have very little control over external events that are happening to us. Our anxiety level naturally goes up when faced with unknown situations. COVID-19 brought up many of the same feelings. 

A fireman’s job is to rush into situations that everyone else is running away from. They can do it because their perceived amount of control is higher. They know how fires behave. They know what different color flames mean. The situation is not unknown to them. They have “been here before.” It is that gap between what bystanders know and what professionals know that allows them to rush into what we think is danger.

The question becomes, how can we increase our own “window of tolerance?” How can we function effectively in normal times and challenging times?

Anxiety Affects Both Our Minds and Our Bodies

That’s why Mastery Under Pressure addresses both our minds and our bodies. 

Early last year, I was on the phone with a colleague whose thoughts were sending him into a near panic attack. He makes his living speaking and traveling. He’d been in the middle of a four-city road trip when the first pandemic lockdown was announced. His last two talks were canceled and he flew back home on a plane that was 90% empty. The combination of the uncertainty of the pandemic and the fear of losing his income was beyond his nervous system’s “window of tolerance.” He was freaking out.

I gave him a few tips that you can use when you find that your “monkey mind” has taken over.

  1. Become aware of your thoughts. You can’t change anything if you don’t know how you’re talking to yourself. Our unconscious programming runs in the background. And if you haven’t trained yourself to manage the wild nature of your mind, it will run you. 
  2. Ask yourself “Are my thoughts producing something useful?” I like to use the term, “productive thinking,” rather than positive thinking. If your thoughts are taking you into a downward spiral, take charge and shift them. Yes, this may be easier said than done, but, this next phrase may help. 
  3. “What’s in my control? What’s out of my control? This is the key to beginning to find your way out of a stressful situation. People frequently believe that being in control means controlling other people or events. This is an impossible endeavor. Being in control of our lives means being at choice as to how we think and behave.

Professionalism in the Workplace Pays Off

Being an all-around pro impacts your bottom line. When people respect and admire their peers and their bosses, they work better and with less stress. And being a place people want to work for makes it easier to recruit and keep other top performers. Then one day you’ll discover your entire organization is operating at its best. Only better!

Improve your professionalism in the workplace today!

________

Download the Free Professional Coaching  Corporate Preview

 

Search our hashtags for more information: #masteryunderpressure #makeyourbestbetter

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

What’s Your Leadership Style?

Leadership Style

What is your leadership style? In a February 2020 blog posting on HubSpot, Braden Becker lists eight common leadership styles: 

  • Democratic
  • Autocratic
  • Laissez-Faire 
  • Strategic
  • Transformational
  • Transactional
  • Coaching
  • Bureaucratic

What almost everyone forgets is that to be a leader, you need people to lead. Whatever you call them: Employees, Teammates, Associates, Peers, Co-Workers, Partners, Staff, Colleagues or Collaborators—how well you’re able to engage with them, and your leadership style, will determine your success or failure as a leader.  Being a leader automatically implies you have a relationship with the people around you. And suddenly, your skills as a leader require you also to have skills connecting with and managing other human beings.

A friend of ours was president of a global advertising agency. People who worked for him loved him, respected him, and were in awe of his mind and his knowledge of marketing. But one of his direct reports also knew his weak spot: “[He’s] like the drum major of a college band at the halftime show. He comes out first or bursts out of the band wearing that beautiful fur hat and pumping his baton in time to the music. Then he ups his gait and starts striding down the field two to three yards at a time. But he forgets to look back to see if the band is following.”

What good is being a leader if you don’t engage your followers?

Professional Coaching is a Smart Strategy

If you want to get to the top of your game and stay there, you should add a coach to your organization or your toolbox; it’s a smart strategy. A professional coach. Not a “therapist.” Not a “trainer.” Not someone with a “method.” An individual or organization with the ability to understand what you’re looking to achieve and can help you get there. 

Tennis star Naomi Osaka has a coach—Wim Fissette. When they interviewed him after Naomi’s 2021 Australian Open victory, he articulated exactly what Mastery Under Pressure is all about: “When her attitude is good, her mind is very clear what she needs to do, what she wants to do and then she plays well.” All of those attributes are learned skills…and you should learn what the pros already know.

Benchmark Athletes and Artists

As we wrote in our blog about professional coaching, business leaders have a blind spot. Probably acquired while getting our MBA degrees. Most business schools studied…businesses. Very few business schools look outside the corporate universe to give us a smart strategy to apply to our jobs and careers. And what’s the smartest strategy of all?

Let It Go

When you’re playing in the Super Bowl and the ref makes a blatantly bad call, what was Tom Brady’s smart strategy? When you’re playing in the U.S. Open final and your opponent is fighting with herself and the line judges, what was Naomi Osaka’s smart strategy? When you’re leading in The Masters and your tee shot goes into the rough, what was Tiger Woods’ smart strategy? Every great athlete and performer knows there’s plenty of time later to get upset, angry, frustrated, or annoyed. At the moment, they all have a shared talent. They know how to let it go.

It’s a Tool and a Technique

Knowing how to let it go is a shared attribute of the calmest, coolest leaders you know. In every field and every profession. And while a very few of them might come by that ability naturally, it’s a learned technique for the great majority of us. Some of us learn it sooner than others, but we can all learn how to not let the pressure of the moment get to us. It’s just one of the skills you’ll master in the Mastery Under Pressure program. And another reason why we say we’ll make your best, better.

Have you figured out your leadership style yet? 

________

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Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Can You Afford a Professional Coach?

Professional Coach

‘Can you afford a professional coach?’, is a good question. But the better question is, ‘How much are willing to spend on a lack of results?”

The classic HR joke goes as follows: 

The CEO and the head of HR have a conversation… “What’s the point of training our people?” The CEO asks. “They’ll just take what they learned and leave for another job.”

 “Maybe,” the HR person responds. “But what if we don’t train them—and they stay?”

Every company we know has someone who could benefit from a professional coach. Usually, a top performer that lacks the all-around tools that make their department or the company run smoothly. 

 

Maybe It’s You 

Evaluated your own all-around skills lately? When was the last time you got a promotion or a raise? Being the best at what you do will only get you so far. Even the most talented Academy Award® or Grammy Award® winner can get a reputation as being difficult to work with…and find themselves doing daytime quiz shows to pay their kids’ tuition. Maybe you should take a day this weekend and do an honest, face-to-face evaluation of yourself.

 

What’s the Cost To You and Your Company? 

How much is it costing you not to address the problem? If you’re that person we’re talking about, what’s the salary gap between what you earn now and what you could be earning if you were an all-around top performer and team player? Multiply those lost earnings by 20 years and we’re talking about the difference between a retirement villa in Spain or a cookie-cutter house in a Florida development. 

 

What’s Not Having a Professional Coach Costing Your Company?

What’s the quantifiable cost (medical, paid sick leave) of the stress a challenging top performer puts on other people in your organization? If you’re the CEO or that person’s C-Suite boss, how many sleepless nights did you have to try to decide whether to fire them or not? And what about the people you haven’t been able to recruit? How many other great hires have been warned not to work for that person or your company? What’s your company’s valuation number on Glassdoor? How many new clients did you lose because of that person’s insensitivity?

________

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Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Can You Be Coached?

Coached

Can you be coached for your professional life? Do you honestly believe you know everything there is to know about managing your work, your team, your company, or your personal life? Virtually every top executive and producer who works with us start the work by announcing:

  1. “I’m uncoachable” 
  2. “This will never work.” 

We assure them that’s okay with us, and then we get down to the business of professional coaching…

Toughest Case 

One of our toughest cases was a writer who’d won every award in two industries – Emmys and Effies (in the television industry), One Show, Clio, and Aurora Awards in advertising (she has given us permission to tell this story). But along the way she’d left a trail of bad feelings, lost business, and a lengthening resume. She told us once about a conversation she’d had with a former boss. 

“No one wants to work with me,” she told him.

“Everyone wants to work with you,” her ex-boss said. “No one can figure out how.”

By the time she started working with us, she had 18 jobs on her resume and each stint was getting shorter and shorter. She was, as she now admits, the very definition of a diva (i.e. ‘Pain in the Butt’). 

Being Coached

When we first started working with her, she was resistant to the slightest suggestion. She was terrified (although she didn’t admit it at the time) of the slightest tinkering with her self-image. Finally, we broke it down to the smallest possible baby steps: “Do you think you could meditate for three minutes today?”

We suggested that for nearly a month before she said, “Oh, okay, sure”, with zero degrees of certainty. When she reported she’d done it, we asked her if she felt any less creative. She reluctantly admitted, “No.” It took us nearly a year to increase “3 minutes today” to what is now her regular 30-minute routine. 

Along the way, she discovered that her creative skills haven’t diminished and her people and team skills have increased exponentially. When her former husband gave her an unsolicited compliment that she seemed calmer and more self-assured than he’d ever seen her before, she went from being our toughest critic to one of our biggest fans. 

But our biggest fan of all is her current employer. The CEO and her colleagues no longer have to hold their breath when she goes into meetings or on calls with clients. Now they have the rewards of all her talent as well as her talents as a new-found people person.

So much for not being able to be coached…

________

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Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Why Professional Coaching is a Smart Leadership Strategy

Professional Coaching

When it comes to professional coaching, too many of us think “leadership coaching” or “leadership training” is an oxymoron. 

“How can you coach a leader?” is the question we often get asked. “If they’re already leaders, they don’t need professional coaching.” 

Those two statements are both inaccurate. If you believe them, you’re operating under a competitive handicap. 

We’re going to assume you’re a Top Performer in your field. By that, we mean you run a company that’s #1 or #2 in its industry, and/or you are the best in your company at what you do. 

As you know, there’s a term in business called “benchmarking.” The practice of comparing your company’s performance to either industry standards or looking at best practices in other industries that you can adapt to yours. And, of course, comparing your individual performance to those same standards.

But business leaders have a blind spot. Probably acquired while getting our MBA degrees. Most business schools studied…businesses. Very few business schools look outside the corporate universe to give us case studies that we can apply to our jobs and our careers. 

“I’m Already a Leader; I Don’t Need Professional Coaching”

Most of us were involved in some kind of organized activity growing up – sports, music, theater, dance. No matter what we did, every activity had a coach (or two). Sometimes a volunteer dad or mom. Sometimes a local artist or semi-retired professional. They taught us the basics and stayed with us until we got the hang of it. 

Like training wheels on a bicycle, one day we realized we didn’t need them anymore, we put them away…and that’s the level at which we stayed. Somewhere on the spectrum between “I’m Not Embarrassed” (most amateurs, for example) all the way up to “Local Hero” (your annual golf club or YMCA champion).

But if you want to be the best at what you do, you need a coach right up until (and after) you become the G.O.A.T! Dustin Johnson has a coach—fellow Tour professional Rory McIlroy! Maroon 5 has a coach—Steve Memel. Every top performing artist in the world has a coach. Tennis star Naomi Osaka has a coach—Wim Fissette. And when they interviewed him after Naomi’s 2021 Australian Open victory, he articulated exactly what Mastery Under Pressure is all about: 

“When her attitude is good, her mind is very clear what she needs to do, what she wants to do and then she plays well.”

What’s Your Leadership Style?

In a February 2020 blog posting on HubSpot, Braden Becker lists eight common leadership styles: 

  • Democratic
  • Autocratic
  • Laissez-Faire
  • Strategic
  • Transformational
  • Transactional
  • Coaching
  • Bureaucratic

What almost everyone forgets is that in order to be a leader you need people to lead. Whatever you call them:

Employees, Teammates, Associates, Peers, Co-Workers, Partners, Staff, Colleagues or Collaborators—how well you’re able to engage with them will determine your success or failure as a leader.  Being a leader automatically implies you have a relationship with the people around you. And suddenly, your skills as a leader require you also to have skills connecting with and managing other human beings.

A friend of ours was president of a global advertising agency. People who worked for him loved him, respected him, and were in awe of his mind and his knowledge of marketing. But one of his direct reports also knew his weak spot:

“[He’s] like the drum major of a college band at the halftime show. He comes out first or bursts out of the band wearing that beautiful fur hat and pumping his baton in time to the music. Then he ups his gait and starts striding down the field two to three yards at a time. But he forgets to look back to see if the band is following.”

What good is being a leader if you don’t engage your followers? 

Professional Coaching is a Smart Leadership Strategy

If you want to get to the top of your game and stay there, you should add a coach to your organization or your toolbox. A professional coach is not a “therapist.” Not a “trainer.” Not someone with a “method.” Rather, an individual or organization with the ability to understand what you’re looking to achieve and can help you get there. 

It’s what Naomi Osaka’s coach talked about: “When her attitude is good, her mind is very clear what she needs to do, what she wants to do, and then she plays well.” All of those attributes are learned skills. That’s what we mean by benchmarking athletes. The great ones know how to let anything that’s bothering them go…in the moment. 

Do you have a good attitude when things get tense at work?

Do you know how to keep your mind clear and focused on what you need to do at all times? Do you keep your eye on your goals and not get distracted? 

A great professional or leadership coach should focus on a top performer’s unique talents and abilities. They should be able to assess and evaluate what it is that makes the person great. But they should also be able to evaluate the blind spots. To see where that performer’s skills get in the way of being even more successful. If you get that kind of coaching, well, who knows how far you and your company could go?

Or as we like to say, “Make your best, better.”

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Best Practices Growth Management Personal Development

How Mind, Body, and Spirit Are All Connected

Connected

To be connected with others and the world, we must be connected with ourselves. It’s been said that body sensations come before the mind finds words to name them. If you notice that you are confused, upset, distressed, annoyed or any of a hundred different emotions, tune into your body. What are you feeling and where are you feeling it?

We spend so much time in our own heads managing, directing, pondering, considering. All the fancy words for “thinking.” We forget our bodies, but it is all connected.

Is there a knot in your stomach? Focus on it (rather than avoiding the sensation)—and notice that your mind may calm down as well. Most of us who work in an office have spent our lives training our brains…and have ignored the role our bodies play in the process. Start paying attention to that Mind-Body Connection. If you start to tune into your bodily sensations, they will provide a wealth of information for your mind.

Mind Body Spirit

It is all connected. I do not mean that in any kind of “California woo-woo” sense. People who are truly successful and accomplished; people who are loved and respected by their peers and their teammates; these are people who have nurtured all three aspects of their well-being. 

It is interesting to note how different “experts” or “masters” come at it from different directions. Yoga instructors will tell you it is all connected and to work on the body in order to heal the mind and the spirit. Some therapists will tell you it is all connected and to work on your mind to heal your body and your spirits. Spiritualists will say that if you understand your “being,” it will heal your body and mind.

I prefer the advice a friend was given when he first entered therapy. After the doctor did the intake form, he turned to my friend and asked, “How may I help you?” My friend replied, “I don’t know where to begin.” And the doctor wisely said, “Pull any loose thread—it’s all one knot.”

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