San Francisco Bay Area Executive Coaching

The Business Case for Empathy

Working Resources is a  San Francisco Bay Area Executive Coaching and Leadership Development Firm Helping Innovative Companies and Law Firms Assess, Select, Coach, Engage  and Retain Emotionally Intelligent Leaders; Executive Coaching; Leadership Development; Performance-Based Interviewing; Competency Modeling; Succession Management; Culture Change; Career Coaching and Leadership & Team Building Retreats

 

The Business Case for Empathy

I recently spoke with the director of human resources at a San Francisco Bay Area company regarding providing executive coaching for the company’s CEO. The director of human resources asked some very insightful questions to determine whether we were a good fit. She specifically wanted to know how I worked with different personality styles, and my methods for initiating behavior change. She was very interested in my executive coaching work with helping their senior leadership creating a more empathic organization.

The director of human resources and I spoke about my approach to coaching, and my belief that possessing a psychological understanding of human behavior and specifically empathy are important leadership competencies. We also spoke of the need for her organization to work with a management consultant to help their company create a culture where creativity and innovation thrives.

The director of human resources is interested in partnering with me in helping their CEO become more emotionally intelligent and empathic. We further discussed how other company executives could benefit by working with a seasoned executive coach.

In an uncertain economy, empathy may seem like a soft business skill. It can, however, serve as a catalyst for new growth, innovation and employee engagement, all of which drive profits and long-term results.

“Companies prosper when they tap into a power that every one of us already has—the ability to reach outside of ourselves and connect with other people,” writes Stanford University Adjunct Professor Dev Patnaik in Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy. Most organizations over-rely on data, to the exclusion of face-to-face customer contact. It’s important to remember that we are intrinsically social animals, with an innate ability to sense what others are thinking and feeling.

If you stay in touch with colleagues and customers, you’ll have a better sense of what’s going on in the world. You’ll also surpass competitors at spotting new opportunities.

In Your Customers’ Shoes

Modern technological improvements in data-mining provide strategic plans, sales forecasts and manufacturing reports. Companies become so dependent on these models that they can lose touch with reality.

Firms use all of this information to create maps—market segmentations, research reports—of how customers use their products. But these maps are poor substitutes for actual human contact. Many managers make critical decisions based on numbers, without any personal feeling for the people they serve. They fail to spot new opportunities and innovative solutions for customers.

Nike has built an entire culture that celebrates the potential for athletic greatness in each of us. The company’s headquarters resemble an athletic center; its employees take breaks for running, basketball and soccer games. The people who develop running shoes are usually runners themselves. They possess a basic intuition that cannot be captured in any market report.

Harley-Davidson’s office is a shrine to the motorcycle culture the company helped create. Offices display photos, memorabilia and banners from rallies. Customers and employees ride together. Engineers, accountants and administrative staff acquire an intuitive understanding of the customers who buy their products.

Harley-Davidson’s leaders mandate that company executives spend measurable time on the streets with motorcycle riders. While many employees don’t ride, the company nonetheless instills its lifestyle and values.

Other major companies have learned the value of empathy:

• IBM helps customers keep their information technology up and running by staying as close to them as possible.
• Microsoft succeeded with the Xbox because it was designed for gamers by developers who love games.
• Apple makes computers, iPhones, iPads and iPods for people who covet cool, easy-to-use products. The company’s organizational culture reflects its customers’ lifestyles.

Business happens on the street, in stores and in homes. When companies have a real connection with end users, they come up with better product designs.

The Way Things Used to Be

Overly simplified, abstract information often carries authority inside organizations. Knowing and understanding your customers is the antidote.

Harley Davidson gets it right once again. The company hires fans and publicizes its connection with consumers. Leaders work hard to stay in touch with consumers’ changing needs.

This is the way business used to be conducted two centuries ago. For thousands of years, craftsmen made things for people they knew. Tailors, cobblers and other tradesmen understood what their customers wanted.

This approach ended with the Industrial Revolution. As more goods were mass-produced in factories, suppliers and consumers experienced a growing rift—one that we’ve been struggling to repair ever since.

Connecting through Social Media

Despite living in an age where technology has made always-on data connections ubiquitous, we are more disconnected from the people we impact than at any other time in history. Even with the proliferation of social-media sites, we continue to miss opportunities for genuine dialogue.

Fortunately, many companies are changing this. They know their customers crave the ability to provide immediate input on specific products and services. Consumers prefer to buy products from businesses that know and care about customers’ needs. Managers and front-line employees must listen empathically to what consumers have to say. When managed properly, social-media sites allow open communication.

A 2011 study conducted by Parasole Restaurant Holdings and newBrandAnalytics found what consumers say online increases staff ownership of the employee/customer relationship.

Indeed, technology can actually enrich relationships between customers and employees. But it requires commitment from senior managers, who must:

1. Affirm their commitment to active, empathic involvement with customers
2. Understand the ways in which current procedures and systems mediate interactions with customers
3. Promote the deployment of social networks and other technologies to help customers tell their stories
4. Encourage and enable workers and managers to hear them

Inside the Empathic Organization

Professor Patnaik has created the term “Open Empathy Organizations” for those that encourage employees to focus on empathy as part of the company mission. Success requires employees at all levels to be genuinely interested in other people, and there must be multiple ways for them to interact.

Open Empathy Organizations also provide ways for employees to buy and use the company’s products and services. Netflix gives DVD players and free subscriptions to employees, who can learn firsthand how customers experience the company.

Gardening giant Smith & Hawken, for example, boasts a large garden at its company headquarters. Leaders encourage employees to plant and tend to crops, while familiarizing themselves with the company’s products.

At such empathic companies, employees begin to understand how their work plays a positive role in their customers’ lives. Staffers become more attached to the results they see at work.

Employees perform at optimum levels when they know they make a difference. When they are encouraged to demonstrate care for customers, they become more engaged and energized.

Are you working in a professional services firm or other organization where executive coaches provide leadership development to help leaders become more empathetic? Does your organization provide executive coaching for leaders who need to learn how to develop more empathy? Enlightened leaders tap into their emotional intelligence and social intelligence skills to create a more fulfilling future.

One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is “How empathetic am I?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching to help leaders restore their energy and commitment.

Working with a seasoned executive coach and leadership consultant trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-I, CPI 260 and Denison Culture Survey can help leaders build high performance organizations where empathy in business is a virtue. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become fully engaged with the vision, mission and strategy of your company or law firm.

About Dr. Maynard Brusman

Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist, executive coach and trusted advisor to senior leadership teams. He is the president of Working Resources, an  executive coaching and leadership development firm. We specialize in helping San Francisco Bay Area companies and law firms assess, select, coach, and retain emotionally intelligent leaders.  Maynard is a highly sought-after speaker and workshop leader. He facilitates leadership retreats in Northern California and Costa Rica. The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) awarded Dr. Maynard Brusman "Board Approved" designations in the specialties of Executive Coaching and Leadership Development.

For more information, please go to http://www.workingresources.com, write to [email protected], or call 415-546-1252.

Subscribe to Working Resources Newsletter: http://www.workingresources.com
Visit Maynard's Blog: http://www.workingresourcesblog.com  

Connect with me on these Social Media sites.
http://twitter.com/drbrusman
http://www.facebook.com/maynardbrusman
http://www.linkedin.com/in/maynardbrusman
http://www.youtube.com/user/maynardbrusman

 

 

Creating The Business Case for Empathy - When a Company Lacks Empathy

Working Resources is a  San Francisco Bay Area Executive Coaching and Leadership Development Firm Helping Innovative Companies and Law Firms Assess, Select, Coach, Engage  and Retain Emotionally Intelligent Leaders; Executive Coaching; Leadership Development; Performance-Based Interviewing; Competency Modeling; Succession Management; Culture Change; Career Coaching and Leadership & Team Building Retreats

 

The Business Case for Empathy

I recently spoke with the director of human resources at a San Francisco Bay Area company regarding providing executive coaching for the company’s CEO. The director of human resources asked some very insightful questions to determine whether we were a good fit. She specifically wanted to know how I worked with different personality styles, and my methods for initiating behavior change. She was very interested in my executive coaching work with helping their senior leadership creating a more empathic organization.

The director of human resources and I spoke about my approach to coaching, and my belief that possessing a psychological understanding of human behavior and specifically empathy are important leadership competencies. We also spoke of the need for her organization to work with a management consultant to help their company create a culture where creativity and innovation thrives.

The director of human resources is interested in partnering with me in helping their CEO become more emotionally intelligent and empathic. We further discussed how other company executives could benefit by working with a seasoned executive coach.

Empathy at Work

In an uncertain economy, empathy may seem like a soft business skill. It can, however, serve as a catalyst for new growth, innovation and employee engagement, all of which drive profits and long-term results.

The more an organization can understand and empathize with the key motivators of their employees and customers, the more likely that organization will have sustainable success. ~ Chip Conley, author of Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow

In an uncertain economy, empathy may seem like a soft business skill. It can, however, serve as a catalyst for new growth, innovation and employee engagement, all of which drive profits and long-term results.

The more an organization demonstrates care for its customers and employees, the greater the potential for uninterrupted growth, higher profits, improved products and happier employees. Empathy may, in fact, be the most underappreciated and overlooked strategic business tactic.

When a Company Lacks Empathy

Some business executives dismiss the need for empathy, favoring the more concrete and defensible virtues of rational analysis. They have a point. So did Blockbuster executives when faced with Netflix’s debut.

Blockbuster witnessed Netflix’s dramatic growth in the very early 2000s and chose to do nothing. Company leaders saw the world from a solitary vantage point: atop a $6 billion business with 60% margins, tens of thousands of employees and a thriving nationwide retail chain.

Blockbuster’s management team certainly didn’t view the world from its customers’ perspective: late fees that drove renters up the wall, a limited range of movies that eschewed anything that wasn’t a new release.

Netflix’s ultimate market domination is a cautionary tale for other complacent companies. The Blockbusters of the world go belly up because they sell what they want to sell—not what their customers want to buy.

Empathy helps companies stay grounded. Face-to-face encounters with the people you serve provide context for market research and other data.

Are you working in a professional services firm or other organization where executive coaches provide leadership development to help leaders become more empathetic? Does your organization provide executive coaching for leaders who need to learn how to develop more empathy? Enlightened leaders tap into their emotional intelligence and social intelligence skills to create a more fulfilling future.

One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is “How empathetic am I?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching to help leaders restore their energy and commitment.

Working with a seasoned executive coach and leadership consultant trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-I, CPI 260 and Denison Culture Survey can help leaders build high performance organizations where empathy in business is a virtue. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become fully engaged with the vision, mission and strategy of your company or law firm.

About Dr. Maynard Brusman

Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist, executive coach and trusted advisor to senior leadership teams. He is the president of Working Resources, an  executive coaching and leadership development firm. We specialize in helping San Francisco Bay Area companies and law firms assess, select, coach, and retain emotionally intelligent leaders.  Maynard is a highly sought-after speaker and workshop leader. He facilitates leadership retreats in Northern California and Costa Rica. The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) awarded Dr. Maynard Brusman "Board Approved" designations in the specialties of Executive Coaching and Leadership Development.

For more information, please go to http://www.workingresources.com, write to [email protected], or call 415-546-1252.

Subscribe to Working Resources Newsletter: http://www.workingresources.com
Visit Maynard's Blog: http://www.workingresourcesblog.com  

Connect with me on these Social Media sites.
http://twitter.com/drbrusman
http://www.facebook.com/maynardbrusman
http://www.linkedin.com/in/maynardbrusman
http://www.youtube.com/user/maynardbrusman

 

 

Vacations Are an Option for Lawyers - Embracing Work-Life Balance

A Lawyer’s Whole Life

In the increasingly demanding world lawyers face; many lawyers desire to achieve professional success, a fulfilling life, and true happiness. However, achieving both their personal and professional goals sometimes proves to be elusive.

Most lawyers live hectic and stress-filled lives. They experience a great deal of pressure from the billable hour requirement and client/firm demands. Finding a balance between work and life without sacrificing professional success is often a significant challenge.

You have made a major investment in your legal career. You've earned the right to both career success and a happy personal life. Planning regular vacations each year can help you achieve personal and professional success and well-being.

Stress Resilience

In the pressured legal world; becoming stress resilient is an essential component of happiness for lawyers. Resilience is the ability to persevere and adapt when overcoming obstacles. It is the key to happiness and success at work and in life. The secret to the emotional intelligence competency of resilience is accurate thinking. It is important to challenge limiting beliefs and negative thinking.  Managing stress allows you to excel in the workplace while maintaining a well-balanced, healthy lifestyle. Shifting your mindset to the value of taking regular vacations can help you be more productive.

The legal profession is currently experiencing increasing numbers of lawyers who are dissatisfied with their careers and abandoning the practice of law for less stressful career alternatives. Contributing factors include anxiety, depression, relationship issues, and questions relating to personal values and the meaning of life.

Unmanaged stress increases anxiety, depression, anger, substance abuse, and feelings of unhappiness- all of which decrease quality of life and workplace productivity. In fact, a study done at John Hopkins University found that out of 104 occupational groups, lawyers were the most likely to suffer from depression- more than three times more likely than average. High levels of stress are reported by almost 3/4 of lawyers and resulting in damage to the physical health or emotional well-being of 1/3 of these attorneys.

Increasing billable hour requirements time pressures are frequently cited as the reason for the high rates of lawyer dissatisfaction. Attorneys complain of little time for themselves or their families. In contrast, happy people are less self-focused, less hostile, more loving, forgiving, trusting, energetic, decisive, enthusiastic, creative, sociable and helpful.

Stress is a natural response within all of us and it can serve as a valuable source of increased energy and creativity. When coupled with an optimistic attitude, positive or eustress can help you accomplish the things in life that are most important. However, knowing how to manage unwanted stress and relax is essential to your enjoyment of life. Remember that you are in charge of your own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. You can choose to have regular vacations to help become happy, healthy, and relaxed.

Life Balance and Mindfulness

Poet David Whyte writes eloquently about staying conscious of what matters most.

"We have patience for everything but what is most important to us. We look at the life of our own most central imaginings and see it beckon.  For the most part, we have not the courage to follow it, but we do not have the courage to leave it. We turn our face for a moment and tell ourselves we will be sure to get back to it. When we look again, ten years have passed and we wonder what in God's name happened to us.

We sabotage our creative possibilities because the world revealed by the imagination may not fit well with the life we have taken so much trouble to construct over the years.  Faced with the pain of that distance, the distance between desire and reality, we turn just for a moment, and quickly busy ourselves. But then we must live with the consequences of turning away." – David Whyte

Life in the 21^st century law firm has become more business-minded focusing on the bottom line. This change in focus makes it difficult for lawyers working in a firm to have time for relationships and other meaningful pursuits.

Balance is about integrating the needs and wants of our personal and work lives. A number of attorneys I have coached have expressed the desire to spend more time with their families or other priorities than constantly striving for recognition, status, and money. Balancing your personal and professional life requires making different decisions based on clear values and a life plan.

Vacation and Recharge Your Batteries

Taking a vacation can help you better manage stress and recharge your batteries. Many lawyers are extremely competitive and driven individuals. In my work coaching lawyers, they think they can work non-stop often sleep-deprived without any negative consequences. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In my opinion, lawyers need vacations as much if not more than other professions because of the unrelenting stress and pressure. Unfortunately, lawyers frequently resist going on vacation because of their work-driven and highly competitive mindset.

Even if it just means taking Friday and/or Monday off, take a brief vacation. Go away for a long weekend. Staying away from the office, email and shutting off your smart phone for a few days will help restore your energy and increase focus and clarity. Taking a break can help clear your mind, but taking even a short vacation will help you relax, and help you look at cases with a new perspective and less stress.

How can you maintain your productivity and your edge as an enlightened lawyer? Go on a vacation. Taking a break to rest and restore your energy and encouraging those you supervise to do the same can be extremely helpful to your law practice.

I’ve coached numerous lawyers who tell me they don’t have time to take vacations because of demands from clients or high billable-hour requirements. Many lawyers fear that if they do take time off, they’ll be viewed as less motivated and focused than their colleagues or competition. Far too often, the result of not taking time off from work is seen in a high rate of burnout and depression among lawyers. Recent research supports the view that retention, productivity and career satisfaction are positively affected when lawyers plan vacation time.

The Case for Vacations

Vacation is a time for rest and renewal and to have some freedom from work. However, laptops, iPads, smart phones, and other remote tools allow lawyers to have easy access to the office. We live and work in a culture of distractibility. Creating time away could be the healthiest step lawyers could take.

Morale, motivation, productivity, health, energy and creativity are given a boost by taking vacations. Most of my lawyer clients report feeling rejuvenated and reconnected with family and friends after a vacation, and thinking more positive about work upon returning.

We live in a work-obsessed culture where we live to work. It is important for leadership at law firms to create a positive environment where taking time off is recognized and encouraged. as a way to promote a healthier and more productive workplace.

Office Support

Law offices can encourage lawyers to take needed vacations to improve the quality of their lives and be more focused and energetic.

• Partners or supervisors can be role models, taking regular vacations and supporting others to do the same. When lawyers time off, provide support and advance preparation so vacations are not interrupted.

• Inform your clients of scheduled vacations and manage their expectations around the importance of vacation time. Do not call individuals on vacation, except in a real emergency.

• Create an enlightened and innovative workplace culture where work working on vacation is not expected, acceptable, or considered a best practice.

• Develop firm core values or principles that do not encourage participation in conference calls, returning voice mails or e-mails during a lawyer’s vacation.

• Engage in positive coaching conversations around the virtue of vacations.

Vacationing legal professional might consider establishing the following habits:

• Refrain from calling the office to discuss business matters or check voice mail or e-mail. You are either on vacation or you’re at work; you shouldn’t try to be in two places at one time.

• Trust your collaborative colleagues to pick-up on your behalf.

• Let go of the guilt over taking time off. Create a mindset that respects your personal life as much as your professional life.

Time-Off Promotes Business and Life Success

The importance of planning vacation time as it relates to the success of a legal practice cannot be underestimated. Lawyers are unlikely to maintain a high level of energy, engagement, creativity and productivity without a real break from their work, regardless of how much they love their work. Enjoying both your work and personal life can help create happy lawyers who are fulfilled, healthy and productive.

About Dr. Maynard Brusman

Dr. Brusman lives in Marin County, California and is a consulting psychologist and executive coach with a practice in the San Francisco Financial District. He specializes in working with attorneys and law firms. He consults with law firms on selecting, retaining, and coaching top talent and business development. He facilitates law firm retreats. As an Executive/Career Coach he has helped numerous attorneys revitalize their careers, change their mindset about marketing, and develop thriving legal practices.

Coaching Conversations - Teaching People to Think

Working Resources is a San Francisco Bay Area Executive Coaching Firm Helping Innovative Companies and Law Firms Assess, Select, Coach, Engage  and Retain Emotionally Intelligent Leaders; Executive Coaching; Leadership Development; Performance-Based Interviewing; Competency Modeling; Succession Management; Culture Change; Career Coaching and Leadership Retreats

Dr. Maynard Brusman
Consulting Psychologist and Executive Coach
Trusted Advisor to Senior Leadership Teams

 

Coaching Conversations

I recently spoke with a director of human resources who was searching for a San Francisco executive coach for the leaders at her company. The director of human resources asked some very insightful questions to determine whether we were a good fit. She specifically wanted to know how I worked with different personality styles, and my methods for helping leaders have coaching conversations. She was very interested in my leadership development work with helping executives think better.

The director of human resources and I spoke about my approach to working with leaders, and my belief that better thinking can improve creativity and innovation. We also spoke of the need for her organization to work with a management consultant to help their company create a culture where creativity and innovation thrives.

The director of human resources is interested in partnering with me in helping their leaders have coaching conversations with employees and teach people to think differently. We further discussed how other company executives could benefit by working with a seasoned executive coach.

Teaching People to Think

A century ago, most people were paid for physical labor. The dominant management model was master/apprentice, with the master showing his employees how to perform their jobs.

The Industrial Age introduced systems. Process management became the dominant paradigm, with scientific analysis of linear systems for greater efficiency. Employees were trained to follow, unquestioningly, their bosses’ best-laid plans.

Over the last two decades, the most routine business tasks have been computerized or outsourced. As a result, today’s employees are increasingly hired to think. In 2005, 40 percent of employees were considered knowledge workers; for mid-level management and higher, the number is closer to 100 percent.

Modern leaders must increasingly shift management styles to reflect the needs of a more educated labor force. “Yet we have not significantly reinvented our management models since the time Henry Ford hired a pair of hands and wished they’d left their brains behind,” writes NeuroLeadership CEO David Rock, author of  Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work.

Generations X and Y have been making major organizational contributions, albeit with different expectations. They embrace personal development, while valuing freedom and independence. They want to work for leaders who will help them fulfill their career potential—mentors who can help them improve their thinking.

(From www.Constantforeigner.com (2010) based on Edward T. Hall's cultural iceberg model:

http://region10.acui.org/Region/10/conference/2011/presentations/Hall%27s%20Iceberg%20Model%20handout.pdf )

The Iceberg Model

Some leadership experts have adopted the “iceberg” model to describe human performance. This metaphor suggests that some of our behaviors are visible, while most other behaviors, thoughts and feelings lurk below water.

Our work achievements are driven by how we think. Why, then, do leaders focus on what’s superficially visible when addressing employee performance? Evaluations rarely consider the factors that drive habits, nor do managers reflect on employees’ feelings or thoughts.

Many employees are highly capable individuals who want to work—and be—smarter. They’re crying out for help. It’s up to their leaders to learn how to ask the right questions and conduct truly engaging coaching conversations.

Start a Coaching Conversation

If we want people to think better, we must essentially let them do all the thinking. Dr. Rock suggests the following five-step process for establishing a coaching conversation that enables self-directed learning:

1. Let the employee think through his specific issue. Avoid telling him what to do or giving advice. Ask questions about his thought process.
2. Keep him focused on solutions, not problems.
3. Challenge him to expand his thinking and stretch himself, instead of clinging to his comfort zone.
4. Focus on what he’s doing well so you can play to his strengths.
5. Make sure there are clear processes behind every conversation. To be truly helpful, a coaching conversation requires permission to ask questions and explore possibilities.

Posing questions allows you to focus on your employees’ mental processes. Asking them to share thoughts:

• Helps them find connections in their minds
• Makes them more self-aware
• Encourages them to take greater responsibility for solutions

Useful Questions

The following questions can facilitate a constructive coaching conversation:

• How long have you been thinking about this?
• How often do you think about it?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is this?
• How clear are you about the issue?
• How high a priority does this issue have?
• How committed are you to resolving this?
• Can you see any gaps in your thinking?
• What impact is thinking about this issue having on you?
• How do you react when you think of this?
• How do you feel about the resources you’ve invested thus far?
• Do you have a plan for shifting this issue?
• How can you deepen your insight on this?
• How clear are you on what to do next?
• How can I best help you further?

None of these questions focuses on the problem’s specific details. Notice how the questions avoid suggesting what employees should think or do. They’re designed to help your people take notice of their own thinking.

Asking Permission

An effective coaching conversation requires an environment where people feel safe enough to explore their thoughts and reach new insights. Four elements should be in place:

1. Permission: “Is this a good time to talk and explore your thinking?”
2. Placement: “Let’s see if you can come up with some ideas in the next few minutes.”
3. Questioning: “Is it OK if I ask you to share your thoughts with me?”
4. Clarifying: “Tell me more about this. What do you mean?”

As you approach the most personal questions, ask yet again for permission. People can quickly become defensive and stop listening to you. Asking permission frequently helps people feel safe, acknowledged and respected. Here are some sample approaches:

1. I get the sense you have more to say about this. Could I probe a little further?
2. I’d like to have a more open conversation than we’ve had before. Would it be OK to ask you some more specific questions right now?
3. Can we spend a few minutes brainstorming ideas around this?
4. I’d like to understand more about your thinking. Would you be OK with talking more about this?
5. I’d like to discuss some more personal matters. Would this be OK with you?

Empowering subordinates is hard and complicated work. You have to be willing to give up control and let people work through their own thinking. A good leader acts as a guide rather than the all-knowing expert.

 

Are you working in a professional services firm or other organization where executive coaches provide leadership development to help leaders have coaching conversations and teach people to think? Does your organization provide executive coaching for leaders who need to learn how to have coaching conversations? Enlightened leaders tap into their emotional intelligence and social intelligence skills to create a more fulfilling future.

One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is “How can I have coaching conversations at work and think better?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching to help leaders develop more effective teams.

Working with a seasoned executive coach and leadership consultant trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-I, CPI 260 and Denison Culture Survey can help leaders build high performance organizations. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become fully engaged with the vision, mission and strategy of your company or law firm.

About Dr. Maynard Brusman

Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist, executive coach and trusted advisor to senior leadership teams. He is the president of Working Resources, a leadership consulting and executive coaching firm. We specialize in helping San Francisco Bay Area companies and law firms assess, select, coach, and retain emotionally intelligent leaders.  Maynard is a highly sought-after speaker and workshop leader. He facilitates leadership retreats in Northern California and Costa Rica. The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) awarded Dr. Maynard Brusman "Board Approved" designations in the specialties of Executive Coaching and Leadership Development.

For more information, please go to http://www.workingresources.com, write to [email protected], or call 415-546-1252.

Subscribe to Working Resources Newsletter: http://www.workingresources.com
Visit Maynard's Blog: http://www.workingresourcesblog.com  

Connect with me on these Social Media sites.
http://twitter.com/drbrusman
http://www.facebook.com/maynardbrusman
http://www.linkedin.com/in/maynardbrusman
http://www.youtube.com/user/maynardbrusman