Book Review – Factors of Business Success

I read business books avidly seeking the knowledge that will help me to help my clients achieve their potential. I only recently came across the 12 Factors of Business Success although it was published in 2007. Yet the wisdom in the covers made me immediately want to read it a second time which I did– marking up sentence after sentence.

Find out why on the post I wrote at WeeklyLeader

Read Full Post »

Coaches Mojo

Do you get my emagazine? Coaches Mojo is not for everyone.  It’s for those who don’t like to to sit still with the same old thinking, and want to find new and better ways to improve every part of their world. Coaches Mojo is dedicated to the people that are prepared to roll up their sleeves and take action. Its for those restless people who like to go against the grain to succeed + that means those that are or want to be MOTIVATED.

It will be delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning. With features in business, health, well being, play, community, technology and books, Coaches Mojo is a mix of creativity to get you THINKING over your goals.

If you’d like it subscribe by sending me an email colin (at) lewisfields (dot) com. Also recommend it to a friend who could do with motivation

Read Full Post »

Now what?

To Reach a Port we must Sail.   Sail, Not tie at anchor.   Sail, not drift – Roosevelt.

Are you drifting or sailing?

If you are drifting along then I can help you reignite the passion within. Contact me for an initial courtesy 30 minute motivation session to discover how I can help you ‘sail’.

Read Full Post »

Word for Today – Enthusiasm

Remember the words of Emerson, “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

Enthusiasm. One of my absolute favourite words.

Did you know that it comes from the Greek “enthous” which means “possessed by a god” (theos – God) and en (within))? God here is the spiritual good not necessarily the religious God.

So, when you’re enthusiastic, goodness is within you. And, equally important, as you will no doubt discover when you are NOT enthusiastic, your inner God has left the building that is you. (Note: – My own understanding of how “spiritual” you are has nothing to do with what you believe but everything to do with your state of consciousness. This, in turn, determines how you act in the world and interact with others)

Read Full Post »

Twitter and Attention Management

This is the start of some ramblings on Attention Management and Attention Economics.

An issue for Executives both with themselves and all employees within the organisation is ‘Attention Management and the Economics of Attention’ – indeed attention management is a requisite for all human beings and businesses must start to think very carefully about the economics of attention.

I’ve been experimenting with Twitter (you can find me here http://www.twitter.com/ColinUdeLewis).

Twitter is a great place to share information and build a community. I won’t labour over how business can benefit from Twitter now but follow @zappos and you will get a great idea.

The marriage of the computer with telecommunications (Internet and now mobiles) and now Twitter results in movement of information at the speed of light and to enormous audiences which opens up great potential for organisations but it also can cause an attention deficit or overload – So how do you Manage that Attention and create the Attention Economy for your company.

Twitter Economics are interesting. I have a parcel of thought and feeling (information). I package it up send it to my followers. They unwrap it and use it. If they think it is useful they ReTweet it to their followers and so the community expands. Through these ReTweets I get credit

But sometimes on twitter I feel I am sitting in a fighter plane. The problem avionics designers face is the same problem all of us face in daily life. The data comes at you so thick and fast that the mind cannot make sense of it. For the fighter pilot, a careful orchestration of digital systems, images and noise is essential to buffer this overload.

That’s what you get with Twitter there is a constant stream of data and noise, some of it chit-chat, but depending upon whom you are following, much of it rich and informative but often because of overload it is difficult to keep one’s attention on this information.

There are various terms used for information, depending on how much attention is devoted to it. No attention gives you “raw data.” Some attention gives you “massaged data.” Lots of attention gives you “useful information.” Maximal attention gives you “wisdom”and so on.

For simplicity let’s use three terms: Data, Information, and Wisdom. Which of these three do we feel is in shortest supply in our daily lives? Starting on the humble level of our day-to-day lives, surely it must be Information and Wisdom.

We are drowning in Data. Magazines accumulate. Catalogues inundate. Email messages pile up. Our “books to read” lists expand geometrically, articles bookmarked to favourites never get read . We do not have time, as we say, to “make sense of it.” That is, we do not have time, or do not know how, to construct our human-attention structures that would make the data useful to us.

Instant communication does not in and of itself create understanding nor does it produce wisdom. It does not change human nature nor make our problems go away. But it does change the way in which businesses can operate both within and outside the enterprise. It gives a closer link to the customers, cuts down boundaries within organisations and creates new paths to market – above all used wisely it can educate and learning is something we all need to do continuously.

In future posts I will expand upon these important topics – have I whetted your appetite enough to keep your attention?

Read Full Post »

Coaching Most Effective for Talent Management

Based on two years of research and analysis of approximately one million data elements, Bersin found that the following 22 talent management processes drive highest business impact. Use this list as a priority list to guide your talent management strategy.

Top 22 Talent Management Practices

http://www.bersin.com/Resources/Content.aspx?id=6150

Read Full Post »

New Report – Executive Coaching Making a difference to Leadership Development

Leadership Development, a priority for organizations in tough economic times, gets a boost as Executive Coaching is seen to be delivering on its promise of improving Leadership Skills says new report from MindTram.

Whether your ERP systems were designed by Oracle or SAP; whether your trucks were built by Volvo or Isuzu; whether your tractors were made by Caterpillar or Komatsu; the true competitive difference for all companies is the people that moves the business forward. Recognizing this global organizations are increasingly turning to Executive Coaches to develop star talent.

The majority of the Executives that have received Coaching indicate that they are ‘extremely satisfied’ with the development and knowledge gained from Coaching. Indicating increased Leadership Skills, improved Self-Awareness and better life balance as the 3 areas where they gained the most benefits.

Human Resource Professional and Supervisors (CEO’s, etc) of the individuals being coached indicated a wide increase in skills development essential to an executives day-to-day tasks and acknowledged a high degree of satisfaction from the Coaching process.

The survey indicates that the vast majority of Coaching assignments are based on recommendations and therefore the value speaks for itself as providing a return on investment.

Furthermore the MindTram Executive Coach survey provides insight from Coaches as well as the Organizations recruiting the Coach, thereby offering opinions from buyers and suppliers of Coaching.

In these difficult economic times it would appear that Leadership Development and people skills are one area that organizations would seem to need more of.

Survey Information available for download at: http://www.mindtram.com

Read Full Post »

What People Get from Coaching

I was brainstorming with a group of clients last week during a training seminar about why they ‘bought’ Coaching. Here’s a summary of the key points:

In the first instance we looked at what resonates with the buyer.

• The perfect solution to a specific problem
• A service that people want to buy without being coerced
• An idea that people immediately understand has value to them, even
  if they have never heard of your company or its products and services

Thinking of those bullets we expanded onto the top 3 items they said they came to Coaching to solve:

1. Leadership Development – improving interpersonal and team leadership skills.
2. Self-awareness – becoming more aware of there shortcomings and understanding the origins and history of behavior at home and work and its impact on others.
3. Life balance – balancing personal and professional roles more effectively

What they all agreed upon was that Coaching first and foremost helps leaders find their authentic self – by doing this they gain more credibility in the workplace and see an increase in productivity both from themselves and their direct reports.

Please contact me if you want to know more. (colin(dot)udelewis(at)mindtram(dot)com

Read Full Post »

Executive Coach Tips of last week

At the end of each week I post the Executive Coach Tip of the Day from my twitters stream – Here are the Tips from last week:

1. Eagerness to Please – Winning the popularity contest should be the last thing on your mind.
2. If you want to be a Leader of People show them that you have an open mind and a willing heart.
3. Anything is possible if you share the glory. Giving others a chance to claim credit is an easy and effective way to get results.
4. Confide in someone you trust. Solitary introspection will only carry you so far.
5. Develop Courage, By courage, I mean state the facts, speak the truth, and do the right thing.
6. under pressure—in the loneliness of leadership—the only values you can count on are those you have tested.

Please follow me on Twitter if you want to get daily quotes and tips, have fun and relax a little.

Read Full Post »

Emotional Intelligence and People Skills

There’s a saying that goes your “IQ gets you hired but your personality ‘EQ’ gets you fired”. Whilst there is of course much truth in this I suggest an Employer can help Employees develop their EQ (Emotional Intelligence or EI) so that their IQ gets them hired and their EQ gets them promoted.

What is EI and why is it important? Confusion still abates about what is EI, in my coaching I define it as an intelligent system for the processing of emotional information. So EI cuts across the cognitive and emotional systems.

All good coaches use some form of EI in their work and ‘awaken’ the EI of their clients. I prefer to use the following 5 broad subtypes in explaining EI. Each of these components is broken into various subcomponents.

• The first is intrapersonal intelligence, which is composed of emotional self-awareness, assertiveness, self-regard, self-actualization, and independence.
• The second is interpersonal intelligence, which comprises empathy, interpersonal relationship, and social responsibility.
• The third construct is adaptability, which divides into problem solving, reality testing, and flexibility.
• Fourth is stress management, which comprises stress tolerance and impulse control.
• The fifth contains measures of general mood, which is composed of happiness and optimism.

So if the above 5 traits do not convince you about the value of EI – what about this – – Emotion is the power that CONNECTS human beings to everything they CARE about! Emotions are among the primary determinants of behavior and achievement at work, impacting upon individual productivity, satisfaction, well being, and social climate.

Emotions are real-time indications of how well we think we are coping with day-to-day challenges and demands. EI provide us with invaluable information about ourselves, other people, and the various dynamic transactions that we share inside our organizations. This information filters through to us because our feelings reflect spontaneous emotional responses to the appraisals and interpretations we make of ongoing events in the workplace. By tapping into the rich information that emotions provide us with, we can often alter our thinking and behavior in such a way as to allow us to negotiate organizational challenges in a more adaptive (and indeed productive) manner.

One aspect of EI is Empathy (a subset of interpersonal skills). Empathy refers to the awareness of other’s feelings, needs, and concerns. At the individual level, empathy is a person’s ability to sense and understand other people’s feelings, concerns, and perspectives.

Empathy also implies taking active interest in other individuals’ concerns and feelings, and responding to other individuals’ unspoken feelings. In other words, when we are emotionally in tune, we can put aside our own personal agendas for some period, in order to be receptive to other people’s signals.

Empathy is essential as an emotional guidance system, piloting us in getting along at work, it is a meaningful predictor of quality performance in the job environment. According to scientific reserach individuals high in empathy are more capable of relating to other group members within a professional organization (Williams & Sternberg, 1988). In addition, the ability to empathize with others and relate to the feelings of others may play a role in the formulation of superior goals, plans, and strategies.

Empathic ability is particularly important when the problems to be solved
require reconciliation of conflicting opinions in a manner that is acceptable
to diverse people working within an organization.

So if thought of as the equivalent of a ‘‘social radar,’’ empathy is crucial for success in the business world. We know it is important to listen empathically to the customer’s point of view and to see reality from their perspective.

Furthermore, empathy is a critical component of conflict resolution and negotiation skills. The best negotiators can sense which points matter
most to the other party and gracefully concede them, while pressing for
concessions in points that do not carry such emotional relevance to the other party.

I am often asked can EI be learned and the short answer is YES. People can be trained on the ability to accurately read the subtle social cues and
signals given by others. In so doing, these individuals can accurately determine the emotions being expressed by their colleagues and learn to understand the perspective taken by others with whom they interact.

So as you can see EI and empathy in particular is a crucial skill – indeed I would go as far as to venture that people skills are the one skill that we must all learn for all aspects of our lives.

Read Full Post »