San Francisco Bay Area Executive Coaching

Leadership and Creating Flow

Leadership and Flow

One of my CEO executive coaching clients is working with his executive leadership team to create an organizational culture that unleashes employees’ intrinsic motivation and a state of flow. I am coaching him to become more effective at appealing to employees’ intrinsic motivation and core values, and helping leaders at all levels of the organization become more fully engaged in creating a culture that supports flow.

The CEO knows that for the organization to thrive depends on creating an organizational culture and climate that nourishes constant innovation. Human Resources is partnering with me in supporting senior leaders to motivate people by building authentic relationships. Our current executive coaching and leadership consulting work is also focused on helping leaders throughout the organization increase their ability to motivate team members by tapping into their purpose and values.

The CEO and his senior leadership team members are each heading up two strategic initiatives to energize growth and increase revenues. The goals are clear and tap into each leader’s purpose and desire to pursue meaningful work. In our executive coaching meetings, company leaders are reporting a significant increase in their energy, happiness and business results.

Each senior leader has autonomy over what they’re doing and how they do it, including choosing their time, tasks, team and techniques. They have the opportunity to master their work and make progress through deliberate practice. The executives have a sense of purpose in their work — to something higher and beyond their job, salary and company. They are empowering their direct reports and all company employees with the same opportunities and creative mindset.

As an executive coach, I strive to help people achieve greater satisfaction at work utilizing research on flow states to inform our coaching conversations. I utilize the following eight characteristics to help leaders reflect on activities that will produce the flow like state and the resulting increase in work satisfaction:   

1. There are clear goals every step of the way.
2. There is immediate feedback to one’s actions.
3. There is a balance between challenges and skills.
4. Action and awareness are merged.
5. Distractions are excluded from consciousness.
6. There is no worry of failure.
7. Self-consciousness disappears.
8. The sense of time becomes distorted.

Creating Flow

People are most productive and satisfied when their work puts them in a state of “flow” — more commonly recognized as being “in the zone.” In the flow state, one experiences a heightened sense of focus and a generally higher sense of satisfaction.

Leaders can ask themselves, “what activities do I engage in that create these flow characteristics? How can I engage in more of these rewarding activities at work and when will I do it? If I am not experiencing “flow”, what can I do and when will I do it, to manifest the flow state within?”


...About Dr. Maynard Brusman

Dr. Maynard Brusman
Consulting Psychologist and Executive Coach|
Emotional Intelligence & Mindful Leadership Workplace Expert

I coach leaders to cultivate clarity, creativity, focus, trust, and full engagement in a purpose-driven culture.

Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist and executive coach. He is the president of Working Resources, a leadership consulting and executive coaching firm. We specialize in helping San Francisco Bay Area companies develop emotionally intelligent and mindful leaders.

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

 

Emotional Intelligenct Leaders and Interpersonal Savvy

Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal Savvy

“Today we are faced with the pre-eminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1945

Leaders and managers can study, train and be coached. But if they fail to work on their interpersonal skills, they will not succeed when given more complex responsibilities. The ability to relate to and connect with others helps confer influence and leadership success.

Until recently, there has been little focus on what goes on within the relationship between two people in an organization. Almost all professional development programs focus on the individual: what you can do to improve yourself.

Thousands of people explore leadership and management skills each year with an emphasis on improving their personal abilities. Very few have participated in programs to develop interpersonal skills.

Obviously, pursuing personal growth is worthwhile. Now, however, experts suggest that executives who develop their interpersonal skills will finely hone their ability to lead and influence.

The best managers in the world are not only experts in systems, processes and technical competencies. They are also proficient at managing their employees, personal strengths and preferences. Thus, they increase employee engagement and productivity. Unfortunately, most people’s experience with bosses falls short of these goals.

Emotional Intelligence

Do you ever wonder why some of the most brilliant, well-educated people aren’t promoted, while those with fewer obvious skills climb the professional ladder?

Chalk it up to emotional intelligence (EI), a term first coined in 1995 by psychologist Daniel Goleman in his New York Times bestseller Emotional Intelligence.

In the United States, experts had assumed that high IQ was key to high performance. Decades of research now point to EI as the critical factor that separates star performers from the rest of the pack.

EI is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. It is composed of four core skills that are paired under two primary competencies: personal and social.

Emotional intelligence taps into a fundamental element of human behavior that is distinct from your intellect. There is no connection between IQ and emotional intelligence. Intelligence is your ability to learn, as well as retrieve and apply knowledge.

Emotional intelligence is a flexible set of skills that can be acquired and improved with practice. While some people are naturally more emotionally intelligent than others, you can develop high emotional intelligence even if you aren’t born with it.

Over the last decade there has been a huge increase in evidence that emotional intelligence is an important factor in leadership. Numerous studies have shown a positive relationship between emotionally intelligent leadership and employee satisfaction, retention, and performance.

"No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt

As organizations become more aware of this, they are looking for ways to recruit and promote from within people that are strong in emotional intelligence.

Here are five factors that are crucial for emotionally intelligent leadership:

1. Self-awareness

The basis of any degree of emotional intelligence is awareness of our own emotions, what causes them, and how we react to them. Leaders who are more aware are able to develop skills that will help them manage their own emotions, allowing them to respond more effectively to situations that come up.

Instead of reacting to their emotions, they are able to engage their thinking capacity to come up with better decisions. Leaders who react from their emotions without filtering them can severely damage relationships and increase mistrust amongst employees.

2. Awareness of others

The more self-awareness that leaders demonstrate, the higher will be their awareness of the emotions of others at work. Having an awareness of emotions, how they are created, and how they influence people will allow them to not take emotions of others, such as anger, personally. Less likely to jump to conclusions or judgment, they are more likely to get to the root of the issue and the cause of strong emotional reactions of others.

3. Listening skills

Most people fall into the habit of thinking of a response, while others are speaking instead of actively listening. Emotionally intelligent leaders avoid that trap, realizing that they need to understand not only the content of what others are saying, but also pick up the feelings behind the words that are being spoken.

The emotions behind the words are often more important than the words spoken. It is only when those emotions are acknowledged that people feel that they are being heard. Often complaints are about situations that leaders can do little to change. People are often aware of that, but still have the need to feel heard.

Emotionally intelligent leaders hear their staff and by doing so are able to connect with them on a deeper level.

4. Awareness of the emotional environment

Effective leaders are not only aware of what is going on with their people in individual conversations - they are able to pick up the mood and feelings of their work environment. Tuned in emotionally, they are aware of the many factors that can influence the feelings of their employees.

Fear of job loss, losing coworkers due to death or injury, rumors of financial problems in the organization, and various other factors are common in every workplace and affect the emotional well-being of staff. Feeling that leaders understand their situation and care about their staff will increase trust, loyalty, and performance from them.

It is important that leaders are able to stay tuned in to the emotions of their workplace and effectively communicate that to their people.

5. Ability to anticipate reactions and respond effectively

Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to anticipate how their people are likely to react to situations and don’t wait until after the damage is done to respond. If they are aware that bad news is coming, such as anticipated layoffs, business closures, and other events, they do what they can to openly to respond to them before they happen.

Interpersonal Savvy

The key to getting along with all kinds of people is to hold back or neutralize your personal reactions and focus on others first. Being savvy is working from the outside in. Then, interpersonal savvy becomes having a range of interpersonal skills and approaches and knowing when to use what with whom.

The outcome is ease of transaction where you get what you need without damaging other parties unnecessarily and leave them wanting to work with you again. Having interpersonal skills will allow you to motivate, inspire, and successfully lead others, as well as further your own career development.

Interpersonal savvy is the combination of strong interpersonal skills such as approachability, listening, empathy, and composure with a “savvy” interpersonal awareness and interpersonal style, which involves discernment, common sense, astuteness, perceptiveness, cleverness and tact.

Leaders want to achieve excellence. Achieving excellence is often confounded by the varied personalities and stresses leader’s encounter. A valuable characteristic is what I call “interpersonal savvy”. 

In leaders’ work and personal lives the key to getting along with many people is to hold back one’s initial personal reactions and focus on the other persons needs first. Interpersonal savvy includes a full set of interpersonal skills and approaches, which allow one to discern when to deploy a particular people skill.

The leader who is high in interpersonal savvy has easy interactions with others because of the choices they make in how to interact. High interpersonal savvy is correlated with being more likely to be promoted and being more sought after to work with. How do you know if someone has low interpersonal savvy? People would observe these behaviors:

• Doesn’t relate well to some people
• Lacks approachability
• Poor listening skills
• Avoids making time to develop rapport
• Too direct which offends or makes others uncomfortable
• Excessively work oriented
• Other people describe as intense
• Impatient
• Judgmental or arrogant
• May not read others well
• Shows low confidence when interacting

What does it look like if a leader is skilled in interpersonal savvy?

• Relates well to all kinds of people
• Interacts comfortably with people at different levels in the organization
• Makes time to build rapport
• Maintains constructive relationships
• Tactful
• Manages high-tension situations artfully

When overused interpersonal savvy can become a weakness. An excessive use of interpersonal savvy may look like:

• Spends too much time networking
• Seen as lacking depth or values
• May not be taken seriously
• Low credibility because not trusted

Four Strategies to Improve Interpersonal Savvy

1. Help your leader increase their ability to “read” people. How well does your leader pay attention to differences between people? 

• You can ask: How would you describe the distinctions between the different key people you work with?
• For example, you can point out that some people are warm versus cold; calm versus emotional; ethical versus unethical; fast talkers versus slow talkers; or pushy versus easy going. Ask, “What are the differences you notice? You have a choice in how to interact with this person. What do you conclude is the smartest way to interact with this person which shows your highest interpersonal savvy?”
• Point out how people like “easy” interactions. What are ways that they can “meet” others where they are? In other words, how could they not fight with them but instead be seen as accepting? You may ask the leader, “How would you act with this person to help them feel accepted and to help things go most smoothly with the other person while still handling whatever needs to be done? 

2. Help the leader identify how they may be alienating others. You may ask the leader, “When do people  seem to avoid interacting with you?” I have used this question most often when other people are complaining about the leader’s interactions, but the leader may be blind to the issue. I may ask the leader, “Which of these following behaviors do you do and when? 

• Act Arrogant
• Act Dismissive
• Interrupts
• Does not pay attention
• Is Abrupt
• Acts Insensitively
• Is Pushy
• Displays Anger

In this situation, when the leader may not recognize that they are coming across in an alienating manner I have found it helpful to use a multi-rater feedback process.

3. Help the leader understand when and how other people are uncomfortable with them. You may ask, “What behaviors have you noticed in others when they are uncomfortable with you?  What will you do to become more tuned in to if someone is comfortable with you or not?”

Remember these tips: Choose how to handle an interaction with another by first observing them and their style instead of automatically just doing what comes natural to you. 

4. Discuss the value of managing the first three minutes of an interaction: The first three minutes is essential. That is when impressions are made and often when decisions are made about if someone is liked or disliked, or can be trusted or not. You can ask the leader: 

• What do you often do to manage the first three minutes of interacting with someone? 
• What can you do to come across as approachable? Friendly? Interested? 
• What can you do in the first three minutes to put the other person at ease? 
• How can you set the tone where the other person feels comfortable, and wants to speak and disclose to you? 

The interpersonally savvy person navigates through interactions with others smoothly. People open up to others with strong interpersonal skills. The more the other individual shares information the easier it is to tailor ones approach to interact with that person. This leads to a reputation of having interpersonal savvy and also being an individual that is easy to work with, and gets things done efficiently with other people, without creating unnecessary friction.

For additional information see:  FYI: For Your Improvement by Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger

About Dr. Maynard Brusman…



Consulting Psychologist & Executive Coach
 


Emotional Intelligence and Mindful Leadership Consultant




Are you a purpose-driven executive leader who wants to be more effective at work and get better results? Emotionally intelligent and mindful leaders build trust, and inspire people to become fully engaged with the vision and mission of their company. They build coaching cultures of positive engagement. 



Over the past thirty-five years, I have coached hundreds of leaders to improve their leadership effectiveness. After only 6 months, one executive coaching client reported greater productivity and more stress resiliency helping her company improve revenues by 20%. While this may depend on many factors most of my clients report similar satisfaction in their EQ leadership competence leading to better business results.

You can choose to work with a highly seasoned executive coach to help facilitate your leadership development and executive presence awakening what’s possible. 





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

Leadership Fear of Failure

Leadership Fear of Failure

Of all the challenges leaders face, none is more pervasive yet hidden than fear of failure.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

Leadership is a tough job that requires courage. Doubts, insecurities and fears make organizational challenges more difficult and, in extreme cases, insurmountable. No matter how confident you may appear, anxiety can occur at pivotal times in your career.

Fears are normal emotions that emerge in times of crisis. It’s been said that courage has no benchmark unless one grasps the reality of fear. Fears are real, often strong and quite disruptive, but your response to them defines your leadership hardiness.

Fearful leaders can debilitate their organizations’ ability to function, compromising productivity, decision-making, strategic thinking and employee management. They’re likely to experience issues in their personal lives, as well.

Organizations rely on their leaders to set a vision; provide direction; and implement plans that instill trust, confidence and the performance needed to meet desired goals. Leaders must possess strength and determination to face these challenges and overcome barriers on the way to success.

The task of managing people, with their various motivations, strengths and weaknesses, can prove daunting. Organizational dynamics, rapidly changing markets and tough competition only add to leaders’ challenges.

Even heroes have fears, to some degree. But they do what’s required despite their fears, ultimately becoming stronger in the process.

Fear of failure can sometimes be suppressed, but when this proves impossible, you can no longer ignore it. You must deal with it.

Recognize the Signs

Fear of failure has several telltale—and observable—signs. You’re likely to set your ambitions too low or too high, explains entrepreneurship expert Robert Kelsey, author of What’s Stopping You?: Why Smart People Don’t Always Reach Their Potential and How You Can (Capstone, 2012).

Goals set too low reflect a lack of self-confidence and a fear of achieving normal benchmarks, he explains in a 2012 CNN.com article.

Conversely, goals set too high serve as a mask for your insecurities. Failure is expected, as no one could possibly achieve these targets—which means there shouldn’t be any criticism. Liken it to an attempt to swim the English Channel in rough seas: No one is expected to accomplish it, so we bestow admiration on those who try, yet fail.

A second sign of fear of failure is a tendency to procrastinate as an avoidance tactic. If you can put off achieving a goal, you can also delay the dreaded failure. Look for unfounded hesitancy, second-guessing and finding “reasons” to delay or alter plans.

University of Ottawa psychologist Timothy Pychyl describes research that shows a direct inverse correlation between people’s sense of autonomy, competence, relatedness and vitality and their tendency to procrastinate in a 2009 Psychology Today article.

Other signs of fear of failure include:

• A consistent pattern of indecision
• Anxiety over risks or change
• An excessive desire or attempt to control circumstances
• An inability to delegate or trust others to perform tasks “correctly”
• Perfectionism (often leading to micromanagement)
• An overriding fear of “things going wrong”
• Obsessing over details
• Making sure everything is “just so”

Successful leaders make failure something to be grasped and managed, not feared. You and your organization will enjoy greater success when you learn to master your fear of failure.

...About Dr. Maynard Brusman

Dr. Maynard Brusman
Consulting Psychologist and Executive Coach|
Emotional Intelligence & Mindful Leadership Workplace Expert

I coach leaders to cultivate clarity, creativity, focus, trust, and full engagement in a purpose-driven culture.

Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist and executive coach. He is the president of Working Resources, a leadership consulting and executive coaching firm. We specialize in helping San Francisco Bay Area companies select and develop emotionally intelligent leaders.

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

 

Leaders Fear of Failure

Leadership Challenges: Fear of Failure

Of all the challenges leaders face, none is more pervasive yet hidden than fear of failure. Leadership is a tough job that requires courage. Doubts, insecurities and fears make organizational challenges more difficult and, in extreme cases, insurmountable. No matter how confident you may appear, anxiety can occur at pivotal times in your career.

Fearful leaders can debilitate their organizations’ ability to function, compromising productivity, decision-making, strategic thinking and employee management. They’re likely to experience issues in their personal lives, as well.

Fear of failure can sometimes be suppressed, but when this proves impossible, you can no longer ignore it.

Recognize the Signs

Fear of failure has several telltale—and observable—signs. You’re likely to set your ambitions too low or too high, explains entrepreneurship expert Robert Kelsey, author of What’s Stopping You?: Why Smart People Don’t Always Reach Their Potential and How You Can (Capstone, 2012).

Goals set too low reflect a lack of self-confidence and a fear of achieving normal benchmarks, he explains in a 2012 CNN.com article. Conversely, goals set too high serve as a mask for your insecurities. Failure is expected, as no one could possibly achieve these targets—which means there shouldn’t be any criticism.

A second sign of fear of failure is a tendency to procrastinate. If you can put off achieving a goal, you can also delay the dreaded failure. Look for unfounded hesitancy, second-guessing and finding “reasons” to delay or alter plans.

Other signs of fear of failure include:

• A consistent pattern of indecision
• Anxiety over risks or change
• An excessive desire or attempt to control circumstances
• An inability to delegate or trust others to perform tasks “correctly”
• Perfectionism (often leading to micromanagement)

The Causes

A childhood history of pain or suffering can lead you to anticipate the worst and expect negative outcomes. Growing up around fearful people also plays a role, as does a lack of positive adult role models. Children in these environments struggle to learn optimism and perseverance.

Traumatic experiences framed by failure can train your mind to distrust life in general. Past humiliations and rejections can scar one’s spirit to the point of dismay and fear.

Placing too high a value on a specific goal transforms it into an unrealistic objective. This can distort reality to the point of obsession and magnify the possibility of failure.

Perspective Is Everything

While fear may not be completely eliminated, it can be overcome, Kelsey notes. A major shift in perspective is required.

Begin by recognizing that no one is immune to failure. Coming to grips with fear, understanding that it’s real and knowing if it’s affecting your leadership (and life) are steps in the right direction.

But many fears are unhealthy, including the fear of failure. It’s perfectly OK—and, in fact, advisable—to name it for what it is and devise strategies for dealing with it. It’s admirable to watch someone admit a fear and make the decision to address it. It’s painful to watch someone deny or hide behind a fear, allowing it to take over. Such fears are seldom secret.

Another positive shift in perspective is recognizing that people survive failures all the time. Failure is really not the black cloud some believe it to be. It’s rarely the final blow. Life goes on. If you worry about other people judging you, your fears are likely overblown. Everyone has experienced failure at one time or another, so it tends to make us less critical of others.

Failure actually has intrinsic benefits. We learn and grow through failing. Wisdom, work ethic, strength and self-improvement are seldom attributable to a continued string of successes. There’s no better way to discover your strengths and weaknesses than through failure’s lessons. People admire humility and openness, which engender trust.

Fear: Name It, Claim It, Reframe It

Several process-oriented changes can lessen the effects of failure or reduce its likelihood. In general, conquering fear is a process of naming it, claiming it and reframing it.

• Assess the possible outcomes of a given situation. Make a list of the general causes and probabilities of each outcome. Most of the time, the likelihood of success is greater than that of failure if you apply your best planning and management efforts.

• Recall past experiences where positive outcomes occurred in situations where failure was possible. A track record of positive results is not an accident. You devised plans and allocated resources that set you up for success. Sometimes, a fear of failure leads you to believe that doom is a random, come-out-of-nowhere strike of fate. In most cases, however, several unfortunate missteps must occur to generate a bona fide failure. Even if this sequence is initiated, you can make adjustments to counter it.

• Reflect on colleagues’ experiences. Even when failure hit them, did it do them in? Not likely. They kept going, adjusting, learning, growing and getting better at their jobs.

• Focus on the journey instead of fixating on the destination. We usually experience achievement in incremental steps, as we plan, adjust, correct and celebrate. Individual steps are easier to grasp and foresee, and failure is less likely as this process plays out. If failure becomes a concern, handle it incrementally, as well.

• Set smaller, achievable goals to build confidence and moderate risks. Raise the bar gradually to enhance self-assurance. Emphasize the positive aspects of each step, while correcting or adjusting, to minimize the negative aspects. Choose your areas of focus.

• Ask for help or advice, when necessary. You’ll feel more secure when trusted colleagues, mentors or coaches offer input and guidance. There’s no need to go it alone.

Are you working in a company where executive coaches provide leadership development to help leaders put strengths-based leadership into action? Does your organization provide executive coaching for leaders who need to build a company culture built on trust? Transformational 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 “Am I a transformational leader who inspires individuals and organizations to achieve their highest potential, flourish at work, experience elevating energy and achieve levels of effectiveness difficult to attain otherwise?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching to help leaders create a culture where respect and trust flourish.

Working with a seasoned executive coach and leadership consultant trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i 2.0, Hogan Lead, CPI 260 and Denison Culture Survey can help leaders nurture strengths-based conversations in the workplace. You can become an inspiring 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.

Working Resources is a San Francisco Bay Area executive coaching and leadership development firm helping innovative companies and law firms develop emotionally intelligent and mindful leaders. We help build coaching cultures of positive engagement.

...About Dr. Maynard Brusman

Dr. Maynard Brusman
Consulting Psychologist and Executive Coach|
Emotional Intelligence & Mindful Leadership Workplace Expert

I coach leaders to cultivate clarity, creativity, focus, trust, and full engagement in a purpose-driven culture.

Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist and executive coach. He is the president of Working Resources, a leadership consulting and executive coaching firm. We specialize in helping San Francisco Bay Area companies select and develop emotionally intelligent leaders.

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