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LEADERSHIP COACHING NOW!
The title of this article includes two popular keywords for our time—leadership and coaching. However, these are more than keywords. Imagine how a few sessions of targeted leadership coaching could change your career. Here are some possibilities:
- Raise your personal expectations. Linda did not see herself as a leader and said she did not want to be a leader. The fact was that she was a highly influential sales leader in her company and other sales personnel sought her out for advice. After just one session of coaching, Linda saw herself as an influencer. She finally understood that leadership is influence, pure and simple.
- Make the most of your potential. Consider Susan, a certified medical assistant. She has no college degree but with leadership coaching, she has worked her way to become a respected supervisor of forty other personnel. She is making more than $65,000.00 which is far above the average for non-college grads.
- Overcome weaknesses and magnify strengths. Consider Sean, a young engineering college graduate with mild asperger disorder who wants no special considerations. The focus was on his leadership strengths and weaknesses as well as improving his relational skills. Coaching enabled him to land a new job that fit his situation while maximizing his leadership potential.
- Move ahead of your competitors. Like it or not, you are in competition with your coworkers for promotions and positions. Your leadership skills or lack thereof may be the deciding factor in your opportunities. Rudy had just started work at a new company with several other individuals. He soon discovered that the new company planned to promote one of the new hires into a supervisory position. Rudy had hired a leadership coach several months before he started his new job. Before he completed his first 90 days, he was promoted to the supervisor position. Leadership coaching made the difference!
Leadership coaching is a form of what is often called executive coaching which focuses on “C” level leaders of companies. However, leadership coaching is for anyone who wants to maximize their opportunities across a range of careers, businesses, non-profits, and volunteer agencies. As a professional leadership coach, I have an earned doctorate in leadership and am certified by the John Maxwell Team as an independent coach, teacher, and speaker. I use several key assessments to develop a targeted coaching plan that is customized for you. Leadership coaching sessions may be done in person, telephone, or using Skype.
WHAT IS THE COST FOR LEADERSHIP COACHING?
The cost for leadership coaching usually ranges from a low of $500 to a high of $1,154 per session! However, RENOVA Coaching offers professional leadership coaching at a rate of between $240 and $300 per 45 minute session. RENOVA Coaching offers several programs of coaching to fit the needs of leaders and managers at all levels:
Level 1
LEADERSHIP TUNE-UP
This leadership program allows you to complete our exclusive leadership assessment, receive a report and one 45 minute session of coaching. The low rate for executive leadership coaching is $500.00, so at $274.00, this is a real opportunity!
Level 2
LEADERSHIP 4×4 TRACTION COACHING
This leadership program is a rapid improvement coaching program with only 4 sessions. Dr. Tom Cocklereece will coach you to get back on track and develop a sustainable leadership development plan. You will experience rapid leadership improvement after your 4 weeks or you will receive a refund. Total = $996
We offer two additional levels at a reasonable fee. Contact us for more information to get on the leadership path. Contact Tom Cocklereece at tom@renovacoaching.com
QUESTIONS:
Are you an influential person at work? Do coworkers come to you for advice? What will be the difference in your opportunities if you hire a leadership coach? Are you coachable? Would you invest at least $274 in yourself to receive a return of thousands of dollars?
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Dr. Tom Cocklereece is CEO of RENOVA Coaching and Consulting, LLC
He is a pastor, author, professional coach, leadership specialist, and is
a member Coach/Teacher/Speaker for the John Maxwell Team
Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Web | Blog | Book | Coaching| Leadership
THE PROMISE OF COACHING
In the last twenty years a new profession of coaching burst upon the scene. From the local workout gym to the main street workplace; from the boardwalk to the boardroom, professional coaching has made inroads in many facets of life.
In 1999 Frederic M. Hudson said this in The Handbook of Coaching:
“Adult coaching is a new career area. Whether it will become a stand-alone profession has yet to be decided.”
Profile of a Coach
According to the International Coaching Federation, the average coach is between 46 to 55-years old, has coached for 5-10 years, and 53 percent of them have earned an advanced degree, either a masters or doctorate.
While professional and executive coaches tend to carve out a niche for themselves, most of them tout the benefits of coaching to individuals as well as to businesses.
Benefits of Coaching
An example of the benefits of coaching from Donna Karlin’s 2010 A Better Perspective:
Main benefits of coaching to recipient:
Generates improvements in individuals’ performance/targets/goals: 84%
Increased openness to personal learning and development: 60%
Helps identify solutions to specific work-related issue: 58%
Greater ownership and responsibility: 52%
Developing self-awareness: 42%
Improves specific skills or behavior: 38%
Greater clarity in roles and objectives: 37%
Corrects behavior/performance difficulties: 33%
Main benefits of coaching to the organization
Allows fuller use of individual’s talents/potential: 79%
Demonstrates commitment to individuals and their development: 69%
Higher organizational performance/productivity: 69%
Increased creativity/learning/knowledge: 63%
Intrinsically motivates people: 57%
Facilitates the adoption of a new culture/Management style: 39%
Improves relationships between people/departments: 35%
Bonus Edition
I would add four more benefits of coaching for the organization to Donna Karlin’s list:
- Reduces workplace conflict
- Improves employee retention
- Lowers costs and increases profits
- Increases the company’s professional standing
The Promise of Coaching
While the use of coaching is increasing among businesses in an effort to addressworkplace stress, many leaders remain in the dark, seemingly content with a bygone command and control structure that fails to motivate workers today.
The top three causes of workplace stress are healthcare costs, workplace safety, and absenteeism.
Increasingly, companies are providing life-coaching for employees in an effort to retain them and lower costs. (Business News Daily)
WHY LEADERS REJECT COACHING
The promise of coaching is enormous but many business leaders, managers, andbosses remain skeptical or unconvinced of the benefits of coaching in theirworkplace. Based on these benefits, what business leader would not employ professional and executive coaches?
Here are some possible reasons:
- Leaders fear of loss of control
- Leaders are educated and experienced in a command and control system
- Leaders fear of personal accountability
- Leaders are unaware of the discipline of coaching and its benefits
Before the profession of coaching can live up to its promises and benefits, many more business leaders, CEO’s, and managers must be educated. Some leaders view the coaching profession favorably after they personally benefit from being coached.
TWO SCENARIOS
Here are two examples of employee outcomes:
Opting for Coaching
Joe has worked for a medical office for seven years. He is seen by leaders in the large private medical practice as a fair employee. He does good work when he is at work, but Joe has a lot of absences. Over time some of his fellow employees discovered the Joe was stressed by excessive debt of his own making. He had finally reached a point where he suffered from stress induced depression which began to show in the quality of his work. The leadership discussed what might be done and someone suggested hiring a life coach to help reframe Joe’s priorities and help him get back on track. Additionally it was suggested that the company help him get clinical help for his depression. While some managers balked at the suggestions saying that the company had never done this before, the CEO decided to take a chance on Joe. Turn the clock forward a year and Joe is now considered to be one of the best employees. His positive attitude is contagious, his productivity is markedly higher, and the company saved thousands of dollars despite the costs of hiring a coach for him and helping in his depression treatment. Now, that company has retained the services of a life-coach who has helped several other employees avoid termination, increase their productivity, and saved the company money.
Opting against Coaching
Cindy has worked for a small wellness and fitness company for five years, but recently the company manager and CEO discussed terminating her. She had performed her duties well for several years and seemed to be in line for a promotion to manage another store. Recently Cindy began arriving late and leaving early and the quality of her work decreased. Upon confronting her in the office, she revealed that she was going through a divorce, her baby had been sick, and she had experienced difficulty getting appropriate child care. While Cindy begged for another chance to get her life in order, she was terminated. Consequently, the company spent the equivalent of 150% of Cindy’s salary to terminate her and then hire and train her replacement. (The Real Cost of Retraining Employees)
Coaching is Compassionate
Do an internet search of “how to terminate an employee” and you will get over 15 million results.
Now do a search of “providing coaching instead of termination” or “coaching instead of termination” and you will get from 2 to 5 million results with only a few of them relating to the real subject of your search terms. Is this an indicator of the “lost promise of coaching?”
The sad fact is that unrealized potential is no potential at all, but developed potential realizes reward for all involved.
Coaching is not only cost effective but it is also a compassionate way to respond to the ups and downs experienced by everyone. It is an investment in the most important aspect of business—human capital.
- What are some additional benefits of coaching to the individual being coached?
- What are some additional benefits of coaching to the company?
This article was originally written by Dr. Tom Cocklereece and posted on Linked2Leadership blogazine. http://linked2leadership.com/2011/07/26/the-promise-of-coaching/
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Dr. Tom Cocklereece is CEO of RENOVA Coaching and Consulting, LLC
He is an author, pastor, coach, and leadership specialist
Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Web | Blog | Book
HIRE A COACH
After a long day I turned on an old movie on television only to hear a commercial break a few minutes later. The break went right to a ridiculous discussion between a “life coach” and her client. Of course the vignette was meant to be comical and entertaining; however there may be some who form their opinion of the coaching profession from such presentations.
According to the International Coach Federation, professional and life coaches earned $1.5 billion in 2009 and the figure will likely go up steadily. Of course we are not talking sports here but we are talking about organizational, team, and personal development. Indeed, some do not think highly of the coaching profession and I don’t blame them if their experience is limited to an entertainment segment intended to make fun of coaches and those who hire them. Many people are skeptical of hiring a coach because they are not sure what they do.
WHAT COACHING IS…AND IS NOT
For some, their idea of coaching is of a personal mentor like Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid giving instructions, “Wax on…wax off.” For others, their idea is of a personal counselor who tells them just what they want to hear. Coaching, counseling, and mentoring certainly share some characteristics but there are distinctions.
- Coaching forms a co-active partnership that seeks to empower and equip the coachee to achieve greater competence and growth in areas they desire. The coachee is essentially healthy and able to work with the coach to partner and develop a plan for growth. In coaching, the coachee is able to co-actively establish goals for the process.
- Counseling usually involves some area of disorder, pathology, or dysfunction that essentially disables the counselee in one or more areas of life. The counselor tends to set the agenda and plan for counseling.
- Mentoring begins with a clear and set agenda for the mentee or protégé. The mentor tends to serve as a supervisor of the training by sort of looking over the shoulder of the protégé. (Simple Discipleship, 97-8), http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/start-a-christian-coaching-ministry/
A competent coach brings great experience and knowledge of human relationships to bear within the collaborative relationship of the coachee. By great experience and knowledge of human relationships I do not mean the local beautician who transitioned to life coaching. Hearing many years of gossip does not train one to be a competent coach any more than watching many football games qualifies one to coach a NFL team.
COACHING METHODOLOGIES
There are several general coaching methodologies that are employed by a wide range of life, executive, and professional coaches: personal therapeutic coaching, personal performance coaching, organizational therapeutic coaching, organizational performance coaching, and renewal coaching whether personal or organizational. By the term “therapeutic” I do not suggest the medical definition but rather the meaning from the psychotherapy discipline that suggest “self awareness of behavior leading to improved personal growth and interpersonal relationships.” (http://www.reference.com/browse/psychotherapy?o=100074) Indeed, I am not suggesting that a professional coach is a psychotherapist but in order to demonstrate a reasonable level of competence, the coach must have an understanding of basic human behavior and relationships. (These examples are listed in Renewal Coaching by Reeves and Allison, 2009, pp. 14-17)
- Personal therapeutic coaching may tend to “tell the coachee what she wants to hear.” The focus of the coach is to help the coachee achieve their goals. Generally speaking, the coach resists challenging the goals established by the coachee. Don’t misunderstand, many coaches in this realm are able to help their clients achieve personal objectives and manage their time and relationships better.
- Personal performance coaching includes sales coaching to name one area where results of the coaching relationship are quantifiable through tracking past and future sales performance of the coachee.
- Organizational therapeutic coaching suffers from the same anomaly as its “personal” cousin—the coach tends to tell the organizational executive what they want to hear. Coaches in this realm provide short term benefit to organizations in conflict but they fail to address underlying organizational behavior problems that tend to repeat conflict. This example may be seen when big businesses go “off track” and executives lead their company to act irresponsibly. Most certainly CEOs and executives have advisors and coaches, but they may tend to be “yes men.”
- Organizational performance coaching is focused on quantifiable results and seeks to change the behavior of the organization in order to sustain improved results.
The problem with each of the listed examples is that each may provide short-term improvement and do not address the underlying foundation of behavior whether personal or organizational—values. This is where Renewal Coaching, also known as values-based coaching comes in. Don’t confuse renewal coaching or values-based coaching with evidence-based coaching. Each of numbers one through four listed above may include the evidence-based methodology that is unsustainable because foundational values remain unchanged.
RENOVA COACHING IS RENEWAL COACHING
I make it no secret that I am a Christian pastor possessing twenty years of experience dealing with human behavior and helping people change…not easy! The word “RENOVA” is a derivative of a French term “rénover” meaning “renovate” or “renewal” and is descriptive of my coaching methodology. Sustained change moves from the activator out to others in concentric circles as seen in the ripples after a small drop of water impacts the surface of a pond. Likewise, the relationship of the coach and coachee results in change activity reflected in concentric relationships for the greater good. I learned that for change to be sustainable values on which behavior is founded must change. You do what you value and you don’t do what you don’t value. The same is true of organizations whether profit or non-profit, secular or religious, private or government.
Renewal coaching seeks to form a co-active and collaborative relationship with the coachee to develop an “eyes wide open” plan for sustainable change and improvement. By “eyes wide open” I mean that the coaching relationship begins with mutual agreement on several points:
- The coach is expected to challenge values and behaviors of the coachee without the threat of retaliation of any kind.
- The co-active and collaboration activity within the relationship is expected to challenge and motivate the coachee to achieve the goals of the relationship.
- The coachee will strive to change self-defeating behaviors or circumventing the mutually agreed upon activities and goals of the coaching relationship.
- The relationship is founded on a mutual goal of improving personal and organizational performance and behavior for the greater good and not just for the coachee.
The above concepts are derived from my own work in Simple Discipleship and Reeves and Allison’s book Renewal Coaching.
When you hire a competent renewal coach, you are not hiring a yes man or an advisor who is going to tell you nice things to make you feel good. In contrast, a great coach will challenge your status quo and it takes a mutual partnership to overcome inertia. Please, don’t shoot the messenger. Many business executives, professionals, and politicians wish they had not.
Helpful Resources:
Renewal Coaching: Sustainable CHANGE for Individuals and Organizations by Douglas B. Reeves and Elle Allison, Josey-Bass Publisers, 2009.
Simple Discipleship: How to Make Disciples in the 21st Century by Tom Cocklereece, Church Smart Resources, 2009.
Co-Active Coaching:New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and Life by Laura Whitworth, Karen Kimsey-House, Henry Kimsey-House, and Phillip Sandahl, Davies-Black Publishing, Mountain View, CA, 2007.
RENOVA regards,
Dr. Tom Cocklereece
Hire me as your coach. I useGoToMeetingfor online distance sessions. Coaching sessions and our relationship is confidential but your success will be visible to all. Contact me for reasonable rates at drthomreece@bellsouth.net
OPTIMIZE, ORGANIZE, AND ONBOARD TO BE AN EXCEPTIONAL LEADER
Tim was a CEO of a large and growing medical clinic in a major metropolitan city. His clinic had recently expanded by opening more offices, added more doctors and personnel, replaced the software used throughout their offices, and begun a process of converting to electronic medical records (EMR). Tim had come to his present position from a series of positions with much smaller clinics. He had felt for some time that his present position had outpaced his personal growth and ability. The board of directors had adopted the present expansion and upgrade strategy at a time when the economy and projections were favorable, but then things changed. The economy turned south and much of the strategy was placed on hold or at least delayed. Jim heard comments that confirmed his concern that the board might lay the blame on his desk. He took a deep breath as he prepared to enter the board meeting. If he was terminated, where would he go, and how would it affect his career? If he were not terminated, what could he do?
The character named Tim in this article is fictitious and is meant as an illustration but he is typical of many of the readers of this blog. Gone are the days when one’s education provides all that a leader needs for a whole career. In fact, those days never really existed but it was our perception. It is true however that life and work once moved much more slowly allowing leaders to adjust gradually or maintain their level of performance. The job market was not nearly as competitive as it is today. If Tim survived the board meeting what do you think he should do? I would suggest three things he should have done the moment he felt that his position was stretching his abilities— optimize, organize, and onboard.
OPTIMIZE: EXCEPTIONAL LEADERS DEVELOP A PLAN
Optimize means “to make something function at its best (Encarta). Tim may be able to kick his performance up by up to 10% by improving his efficiency but probably not much more without some help. It is easy to suggest that one optimize but you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s why we need a coach…in this case an executive coach. A good coach would set Tim on a renewal plan that takes advantage of his current abilities and develops a process of continued development. Renewal coaching will motivate Tim to dig deeper and achieve higher and raise his performance level by at least 30%. When coaching is done correctly an individual may be tempted to believe that they could have achieved the new level without a coach. A good coach does not seek the credit or attention and makes the coachee feel that they “had it in them all the time.” Consider that the national champions of last year could not have achieved their success without their coach even though everything the coach engaged and empowered in the team was there all the time. A coach is the catalyst that optimizes all the ingredients that go into success.
ORGANIZE: EXCEPTIONAL LEADERSHIP DEMANDS LIFE BALANCE
Indeed, an executive coach is going to encourage Tim to organize…his life, resources, and habits. This also means to prioritize every area of life. It is essential to recognize that to achieve optimal efficiency, it is also necessary to organize and maintain balance in various life dimensions. Again, a coach can help Tim achieve balance in life, family, and career. These life domains would not disappear in a perfect world but balance would be easier to maintain. Life balance requires a disciplined application of four things—clarity, movement, alignment, and focus (Simple Life,Rainer and Rainer, 2009), and a coach can help you define and refine your process to organize.
ONBOARD: EXCEPTIONAL LEADERS GET AHEAD
Getting even with supers, peers, and reports on a professional and performance level is not enough. Exceptional leadership requires that you get ahead. Many modern executives are familiar with the concept of onboarding. While human resources executives refer to onboarding as an orientation process, professional coaches describe it as a process of accelerated development. A coach would work with Tim to develop an onboarding process that would get him up to speed with all of the current objectives included within the business plan of his organization. Certainly, Tim is able to acquire the information needed regarding EMR, but his coach would hold him accountable to his onboarding plan. Included in a great onboarding plan are intentional relational connections within the organization up, down, and laterally to strengthen and broaden Tim’s relational capital. Thus, he is onboarding both personal knowledge and collaborative knowledge within his organization. Developing the 360 degree relationships within the organization will greatly strengthen Tim’s position with the board, doctors, peers, and reports.
The benefits of optimizing, organizing, and onboarding should not be underestimated. If you have reached a plateau in your organization or you are beginning in a new position, consider hiring a coach before the board meeting next quarter. You may be amazed at the results.
Looking to your success,
Dr. Tom Cocklereece
Hire me as your coach. I use GoToMeeting for online distance sessions. Coaching sessions and our relationship is confidential but your success will be visible to all. Contact me for reasonable rates at drthomreece@bellsouth.net