San Francisco Bay Area Executive Coaching

Executive Coaching For A Changing Future – Is Your Senior Leadership Ready for the Future?

I was recently coaching the president of a mid-size accounting firm. He was frustrated that his senior leadership team was unable to come up with any fresh ideas for the future that would be aligned with the strategic initiative of improving retention, timeliness and focusing on strengths. The firm leaders could only focus on current goals and objectives, and not what might lie ahead one or two years into the future.

Is Your Senior Leadership Ready for the Future?

“Discovering the future…is a far less amazing skill than inventing it. The thing discovered already exists; you simply see it before most others do. Often it is a new piece of technology that makes it possible for something to happen on a large scale. So, find a direction things are moving in and spell out the ultimate logic or conclusion. If you are right, there will be early examples of the thing already around. You are not creating the trend, you are simply spotting it before others.” – Stan Davis, Lessons from the Future, 2001

Is your organization looking forward, or is it focused on the problems of the present and immediate short-term competition? What occupies your senior management team? Are they issues of the present, or are you getting ready for a changing future?

How will your organization create new rules of competition in the future? Is it imagining new ways of doing business, building new capabilities, and setting new standards of customer satisfaction? Is it alert to possible risks from unconventional rivals, new business models, changing demographics, and global uncertainties?

It is no longer a question of being able to operate lean and mean. Trimming jobs and cutting costs, while important tasks, will not put you and your company into a front running position for industry leadership of the future.

Here are three questions to ask senior management to evaluate readiness for the future:

1.  What percentage of your time do you spend on external, rather than internal, issues? Do you understand the implications of new technology that is affecting your industry? Or are you debating corporate overhead allocations?

2.  When you are spending time looking outward, do you consider how the world could be different in five or ten years? Or are you more concerned with landing the next big contract or responding to competitors’ pricing?

3.  How much of your time is devoted to looking outward and forward? Are you consulting with colleagues to create a shared vision of the future based on risk evaluations as opposed to a personal and idiosyncratic view?

These questions were posed by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad in their book Competing for the Future over ten years ago. The book merits re-reading as it is even more relevant today.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a  more inspiring and visionary leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Assessing an Existing Team: 6 Probing Questions To Ask

Assessing an Existing Team

Work today is frequently accomplished in teams. You want to create a winning team in the first 90 days. Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders assess team members by asking each person powerful questions. Everyone needs to quickly and honestly know where they stand regarding the mission and goals of the team and organization.

In my executive coaching work with leaders, I help them formulate the right questions to ask team members. It takes a lot of interpersonal skill to formulate and ask questions that will provide a comprehensive assessment of team members and the team.

Can you think of any questions that you might ask to assess an existing team?

Prepare to meet formally with each person by reviewing available personnel history, performance data and other appraisals. During your meeting, ask probing questions. Michael Watkins, in his excellent book The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels suggests the following for a comprehensive evaluation:

1.  What do you think of our existing strategy?

2.  What are the biggest challenges we face in the short term? In the long term?

3.  What are the biggest opportunities we face?

4.  What resources could we leverage more effectively?

5.  How could we improve the way the team works together?

6.  If you were in my position, to what would you want to pay attention?

Be on the alert for nonverbal cues. While a person’s actual words have merit, much is revealed by body language, as well as what a person omits and the way in which he communicates:

• What doesn’t he/she say?
• Does he/she volunteer information or wait until he/she’s asked?
• Does the person reveal areas of weakness or only strengths?
• Does the team member blame others or take responsibility for specific things?
• Does the person make excuses?
• How consistent is his/her body language with his/her words
• Which topics evoke a lot of energy?
• What is this person like outside of meetings, when he/she interacts on an informal level with others?
• Does he/she tend to be cordial, polite, tense, competitive, judgmental or reserved?

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a more inspiring and happy team leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

How To Lead A Team In The First Ninety Days: 6 Criteria to Assess an Existing Team

Work today is often accomplished by self-managed high performing teams. Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders are learning agile at building high performance teams by quickly assessing talent. Everyone needs to quickly and honestly know where they stand regarding the mission and goals of the team and organization.

How do you assess your existing team as quickly as possible? How do you reduce your learning curve and jump start your team’s performance in the first 90 days? What are the most common mistakes leaders in a new position make?

How to Assess an Existing Team

When performing your evaluation, you’ll find some excellent, some average and some unsatisfactory people in place. You will inherit a group with its own dynamics and habitual ways of working. You cannot afford to make one of the most common errors: gathering them in a room, telling them that you’re in charge now, and that you’ll be making some changes. Instead, you will need to sort out who’s who, the functions people perform and how the group has worked in the past.

Go in and shake the tree, and you’re guaranteed to lose some of the best leaves along with the rotting ones. Always evaluate thoroughly before acting. Hasty action compromises trust and credibility. You may inadvertently lose valuable team members.

If you are like most leaders, you will form an impression each time you meet someone. Hold onto those thoughts, but don’t hold them as truths. Remember: They are merely first impressions. Allow them to register, don’t suppress them, and then allow other factors to influence your ultimate appraisal.

You also must decide which criteria to use when evaluating your people. Michael Watkins, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard and author of The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels suggests using the following:

o    Competence – Does this person have the technical skills and experience to do the job well?

o    Judgment – Does this person exercise good judgment under pressure or when faced with sacrifice for the greater good?

o    Energy – Does this team member bring the right kind of energy to the job, or is he/she disengaged, burned out or unfulfilled?

o    Focus – Does this person stick to priorities, or is he/she easily distracted and scattered?

o    Relationships – Does this person get along well with other team members, supporting team decisions?

o    Trust – Can you trust this person to be honest, consistent and reliable?

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a more inspiring and happy team leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Team Leadership in the First 90 Days - Wisely Assessing a Team

Work today more often than not is being done in teams. Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders are learning agile at quickly building high performance teams by assessing talent. Everyone needs to quickly and honestly know where they stand regarding the mission and vision of the organization.

A Winning Team in the First 90 Days

“The most important decisions you make in your first 90 days will probably be about the people on your team. If you succeed in creating a high-performance team, you can exert tremendous leverage in value creation. If not, you will face severe difficulties, for no leader can hope to achieve much alone”.
— Michael Watkins, The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, Harvard Business School Press, 2003.

Assessing a team—deciding who should stay and who should go—is one of the most critical tasks an executive faces when transitioning into a new position. It can create or destroy leverage—and leadership is ultimately about leverage.

Each year, about 25 percent of managers in typical Fortune 500 companies change jobs. Most spend an average of four years in a given position. High-potential leaders in mid-senior ranks move more frequently: every 2.5 to 3 years. These statistics demonstrate why leaders must build strong teams, composed of the right people in the right jobs, as quickly as possible.

The first weeks are crucial for learning and evaluating. Leaders must maintain the right balance of confidence and humility, while asking probing questions and actively listening. During this time, leaders are most vulnerable. Without a firm support network in place, they must learn everything they can about the organization, its strategies, customers and team members in the shortest possible time-frame.

Leaders must dedicate a large percentage of learning time to getting to know existing team members. If you are promoted to a new position from within the organization, you are likely acquainted with some of its key people. Transition from the outside, and you face the task of identifying and placing the right people into the right positions—a much greater challenge. Either way, you must choose wisely, without disrupting short-term performance.

How do you assess your existing team as quickly as possible? How do you reduce your learning curve and jump-start your team’s performance in the first 90 days? What are the most common mistakes leaders in a new position make?

How would you answer the above three questions? They will be addressed in the next few posts.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQi and CPI 260 can help you become a  more inspiring and happy team leader.
You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Leadership in the Future - Who’s in Charge? Nobody!

I have attended countless workshops on leadership. Years ago the "experts" would for the most part be talking about leadership at the top.

In my executive coaching programs with executives today, a great deal of the conversations revolve around the need for leaders to be inspiring and flexible. Leaders need to be developed at all levels of the organization.

What competencies do you see being necessary for leadership in your organization in the future?

Leadership in the Future

Writing about leadership in the future, Harlan Cleveland goes so far as to say that leadership will be so shared that there will be Nobody in Charge (John Wiley & Sons, 2002). He reasons that now, and even more so in the future:

1.  Systems are so complex that no one can truly be in charge of anything significant.
2.  The more people are involved in a decision, the better the chance it will be implemented.
3.  Looser organizational forms are superior to controlled forms.
4.  Planning must be fluid and subject to change.
5.  Information must be shared rather than hoarded.

Cleveland suggests four extraordinary traits of the leader of the future:

1.  Physical energy: Being able to work long hours and do a lot of homework. Today’s leader cannot afford to be insulated from new, challenging or different ideas.
2.  Consensus management: Decision makers must consult or even bargain with the people who will carry out their orders. In reality, many interest groups are involved in any given real-work issue, and often the decisions need to be negotiated. Being able to lead distinct groups toward a consensus is a critical leadership skill.
3.  Exhilaration of choice: A large array of choices will exhilarate, not depress an effective executive, who should be able to accept complex social management with relish.
4.  Joy of motion: Good executives steer more than they drive. The momentum is already there and the executive’s job is to guide it with a sensitive touch.

The leader of the future will need an integrative mind. Leaders must be comfortable working under high levels of uncertainty and near-chaos. He or she must be able to accept a leadership role without hierarchical authority. This leader will be able to take various elements of a changing world and blend them together to make sense for others. By offering this vision, the leader will be able to get people working together on a common objective. That is what being a leader is about. (Cleveland, Harlan, Nobody in Charge, John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

What do you see as the most important priority/qualities for effective leadership in the future?

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQi and CPI 260 can help you become a more inspiring and visionary leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Executive Coaching for Future Leadership: Five Competencies for Leaders in the Future

In Global Leadership: the Next Generation (Goldsmith, M., Greenberg, C. L., Robertson, A. & Hu-Chan, M.; FT Prentice Hall, 2003), more than 200 executives were selected for their high potential for future leadership from 120 international companies. The results reveal five key competencies for leaders in the future:

1. Thinking globally: Leaders will need to understand the economic, cultural, legal and political environments in which they do business. New skills and knowledge for marketing, sales and international production will be required. A global perspective is a high priority.

2. Appreciating cultural diversity: This competency requires more flexibility and openness than ever before. Cultural tension is a natural by-product of the global business environment and leaders will have to be adept at managing it. The ability to lead disparate groups of knowledge workers to a consensus will be crucial.

3. Developing technological savvy: Information and communications systems are the backbone of the global enterprise. While CEO’s may not be technological experts they must make decisions about which advances to adopt and how to allocate technological investments wisely.

4. Building partnerships and alliances: As a result of all the reengineering, restructuring and downsizing, many activities are being outsourced. This requires an increased ability to negotiate complex alliances and manage network relationships. Joint leadership will be a key.

5. Sharing leadership: Sharing leadership responsibilities will be required to navigate global partnerships. Executive team leaders, keeping in mind a common vision and purpose, will collaborate to make effective decisions and strive for integration, not control.

It is important to remember that leadership is an emergent quality that is produced by the acts of many people in complex systems. The corporate culture must recognize and accept the need for leaders to get help. Leaders cannot walk on water or leap tall buildings, no matter how strong they appear to be. Executive coaches are necessary for the continuing development of leadership strengths, and will be even more so in the future.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQi and CPI 260 can help you become a a more inspiring and visionary leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Leadership Development for a Diverse World: How to Lead Globally

Future leaders must be learning agile.  They must be able to engage people with different values and perspectives.

Communicating across multi-cultural and multi-generational communities is becoming more important as a competency for leaders in the future. A lot more of managing and leading will have to be done virtually.

Only a few of the prominent business schools have begun to teach new and future leaders how to manage diverse cultures in a virtual environment. Yet this is a clearly emerging competency.

Even smaller companies will become global and be required to work in a global environment. Expect to see an increase in diversity issues arise in leadership development programs. The use of executive coaches is expected to gain priority as a primary tool for developing diversity competencies for leaders.

Dissolving Boundaries

Leadership, when simply defined, is all about bringing people together to make something happen. Effective leaders galvanize attention and get people moving forward together. However, organizations are increasingly complex. The past is no longer a map for how to do business in the future.

Leaders of the future must have an increased ability to be flexible, and open to learning. They must be able to manage the tension created by diversity and differing perspectives. They must be able to coordinate and reach consensus, while keeping the focus on common goals and values.

The global nature of business means improving our abilities to work and lead across diverse cultures. Leaders must understand the different legal, political, religious, gender and generational perspectives in different regions and countries. How do their organization’s products and services impact the people in the areas where they are doing business? Are the organization’s employees and executives able to respond to differing needs in a flexible and rapid manner? Can leaders manage the tension that is inherent in multi-cultural environments?

For many organizations having difficulty managing cultural diversity within their own domestic offices, it will be even more challenging to meet global demands. Flexible leaders who are capable of managing diverse groups of people both domestically and throughout the world will have the competitive edge.

Alliances, partnerships, mergers, and outsourcing have all changed the way we do business. Industry boundaries are blurring. Team boundaries must be fluid in order to share information and enable better decision-making. Leaders who are adept at building relationships and leveraging partnerships will have a competitive advantage for the future. The ability to guide diverse groups to consensus by focusing on common purpose and core values will be a highly prized competency.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQi and CPI 260 can help you become a a more inspiring and visionary leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Qualities of Good Leadership for the Future: How Will Leaders Be Successful?

Certain leadership qualities are important now and in the future: emotional intelligence EQ as well as cognitive intelligence IQ, confidence, ability to articulate and inspire a vision, ability to motivate, unfaltering optimism, perseverance, resilience, and strategic decision making.

In my executive coaching work with clients, leaders consistently rate integrity and honesty as the most important leadership competencies. People choose to follow leaders they can trust.

Which leadership companies do you believe will be the most important for your organization in the future?

Leadership Qualities for Successful Leaders

The question remains – no matter what the product or services – how will business be conducted in the future and what will be required for leaders to succeed?

To be sure, some leadership qualities will always be important: intelligence (emotional as well as cognitive), confidence, ability to articulate and inspire a vision, ability to motivate, unfaltering optimism, perseverance, resilience, and strategic decision making.

Recent company bankruptcies have also shown that leaders need to have moral and ethical values to make difficult and even unpopular decisions that are beneficial to stakeholders in the long term.

The Impact of Technology

Technological advances are not only speeding up communications, but also enabling rapid input from customers, suppliers, employees and all stakeholders. Technology itself has created new challenges for leaders and for all knowledge workers wishing to succeed in their roles.

While technological advances can save considerable time and money, here are some of the challenges that they have created for us.

1.  Learning new technical skills: Executives must continually update their skills and remain open to learning how to work with new hardware and software systems. It is no longer sufficient to depend on technical specialists. What were considered basic computer skills in the past are no longer good enough. Leaders must know how to use new devices and programs to their best advantage.  This requires constant learning and keeping an open mind. What worked in the past won’t work in the future.

2.  Decision-making on technical issues: Leaders must be able to make decisions about which technological advances have importance for their organizations, which purchases to make and where to allocate resources. Without this capacity to judge the value of technical advances, they risk spending money in the wrong places.

3.  Managing time and information: All persons, but especially leaders, will have to manage their time and information flow more efficiently, in order to be able to respond effectively and in a timely manner to new input from stakeholders. It does no good to have client input available if the organization’s system cannot handle the information and respond to customer demands, complaints and requests. It does no good to have email availability among workers and managers if no one reads and responds to emails in a timely fashion. Time is not the issue here, knowledge systems and time management are.

4.  Leading virtually: Greater capacity for instant communications opens possibilities for working with suppliers in foreign countries at lower prices than can be achieved domestically. Leaders must be able to support and coordinate virtual work teams.  Working virtually is not the same as managing in person, and requires new skills. Expect to see increased use of virtual conferencing technologies.

5.  Leading diverse cultures: Working with an expanded global environment brings challenges of communicating effectively with different cultures. In the future, leaders will be required to have unique abilities to inspire and motivate others with different perspectives, values, cultures, and religions, as well as multi-generational age groups.

6.  People development: Leaders will have to be adept at bringing out the best in their people, who have more decision-making responsibility with customers and stakeholders in a rapid response environment. Leaders will be required to learn and use effective coaching skills.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQi and CPI 260 can help you become a a more inspiring and visionary leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.