leadership

Sales Leader as Coach; Sales Coach as Leader

April 19, 2022 by Dr. Peggy Marshall

Most of you reading this blog have an arsenal of tools you use to be effective with direct reports. The question becomes how are you using those tools to enhance performance, align behaviors with your organization’s strategy and closing knowing-doing gaps? Tools only take us so far. How we implement those tools in an environment that brings out the best in direct reports can lead to sustainable, effective sales leadership that cascades through the entire sales organization. Strong teams need sales leaders for inspiration, enthusiasm, focus, and to strategically guide their vision, mission and culture. A strong coach leader is often viewed as one of the most important factors in sales growth yet, many organizations struggle with the development and scaling of coaching and leadership behaviors.

Sales people change jobs for a number of reasons including issues with a boss, culture, money, and challenge. These reasons are consistent with what has been shared about the “great resignation”. Key talent turnover creates an incredible gap for sales teams. Using coaching skills to develop and better understand the needs, values and drivers of individual behavior of employees has been shown to influence the desire to remain with a sales team. Kelly in “The Dream Manager” shares that the destinies of the organization and individual potential are interwoven. He threads the concept of “best version of self” throughout his message which is inclusive of both the organization best version and individual best version. This requires that both the individual and organization deeply explore what is valued, the meaning made from those values and alignment of action with the values.

Boyatzis and McKee in “Resonant Leadership” add a resonant component to “Sales Leader as Coach; Sales Coach as Leader”. Focusing on the benefits of emotional connection, the authors position the relationship as key to successful coaching which has been proven time and time again in the research. The resonant coaching leader not only creates connection with followers but also creates resonance with self through the process of renewal. Leaders are so conditioned by “doing” that they often sacrifice “being” and reflection. Boyatzis and McKee share that developing a renewal process provides increased energy and engages the mind, body, and heart in shifting to positivity and healthier relationships. Kouzes and Posner while researching and writing about leadership in “Encouraging the Heart” share this thinking with Boyatzis and McKee. They contend that effective leader coaches are connected with followers as they demonstrate genuine caring for the follower. Without this caring, the follower may experience his or her leader as simply transactional rather than transformational.

Creating a thinking partnership helps a direct make effective choices and decisions when the coaching leader is not with him or her. Support is a component of the coaching thinking partnership which engages the leader and direct report in gaining clarity about goals, holding followers accountable for agreed upon actions and celebrating with followers when goals are met. These leaders provide opportunities for emergent and meaningful conversations. The leader coach sees himself or herself as a barometer of where the follower is with regards to their own thought processes. Questions are asked to draw out deeper, more thoughtful meaningful conversations and take the follower into thinking about future possibilities. Questions such as “go forward three-six months, you were amazingly successful with clients, what did you do differently that led to that success?” and “what might get in the way of your success?” cause a follower to think both in terms of best-case scenarios while also preparing to overcome challenges. Chip and Dan Heath in “Decisive” use an exercise called a “pre-parade and post-mortem” discussion in framing the issue in best possible outcome and worst case scenario. Interestingly, it is typically easier for followers to brainstorm the challenges than the successes which creates another opportunity for coaching.

The paradox of the sales leader as coach phenomenon exists in duality in that it is both about the development of self and the development of relationships with others. Leaders as coaches drive change yet stabilize the team. They also honor past successes while looking forward to the future. Finally, sales leaders as coaches integrate both science and art. Managing the paradox contributes to its complexity and to the complexity of designing effective leader as coach development programs.

If anything in this blog struck a chord for you, please join us on April 27th for our next webinar on “Sales Leader as Coach; Sales Coach as Leader” for a broader discussion on this topic.

Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83239074707

Another Year Over, Celebrate Your Successes

December 23, 2021 by Dr. Peggy Marshall

Hi Everyone!

One of my favorite December songs is “Happy Xmas” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The lyrics start with

“So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun”

Every year when I hear this song, I begin to think about what “I have done” and whether I accomplished the most important things in terms of what I set out to do. There is not a better time for reflection then, at the end of something and the beginning of the new. I know most of you are thinking-“Is she crazy-doesn’t she realize how busy my schedule is?” I certainly do as my schedule is also full. However, if we don’t set aside time for reflection we risk moving into 2022 without a solid evaluation of what’s working in our lives and what is not. As a result we may be destined to repeat 2022 in the same manner that we moved through 2021. Jack Canfield in “The Success Principles” shares that we have to keep score in order to know whether we are creating and reaching goals and part of keeping score is evaluating what we have accomplished. What does your score sheet look like and does it measure what matters most to you?

Keeping score also allows for the process of reflection. Reflection is an important component of how adults learn. We learn from not only from our experiences but also from the interpretations and reinterpretations of those experiences. When we pause and reflect upon circumstances and then apply a different framework to our circumstances we can create new ways of acting and thinking. Using the process of reflection and introspection on an on-going basis leads to increased levels of awareness, insight, and self-acceptance. Many times these moments of reflection can result in epiphanies from which we can chose new thoughts and behaviors. Bob Rotella in “How Champions Think”.

adds that champions self-evaluate and reflect after setting their own standards and do not simply wait for others to provide evaluations in order to move forward into success. What is your process for reflection and self-evaluation?

The end of the year also brings us to a time for celebration. How do you celebrate your success? In a recent meeting with leaders within an organization I work with, leaders were asked how they celebrate. Many did not have a response. When we asked “why”, a couple of obstacles were shared. The first obstacle was there is not enough time. Celebration requires planning and typically ends up at the bottom of a list. They also share that they sometimes hold back celebrating until projects are completed and goals are met. Their thinking was that celebrating too early could lead to a loss of momentum. There have been numerous articles written about the importance of rewarding ourselves when we are making progress not just at the point of completion and that this celebration actually builds momentum. John Norcross in “Changeology” shares that early on in reaching milestones, rewards need to be immediate and intense while later on in a more stabilized change effort rewards are more meaningful. How comfortable are you with celebrating and rewarding your self? In what ways do you reward progress and celebrate success?

As you prepare for 2022, don’t forget to reflect upon 2021 successes. One of the best ways to create our future is to leverage what we know about our past successes! Celebrations can help to rewire our brains so that our focus is on what leads to success rather than what is missing. Shawn Achor in “The Happiness Advantage” relates that this rewiring creates what he calls the positive tetris effect and sets us up for happiness, gratitude and optimism. As you are making plans and setting goals for 2022, make sure you build in time for rewards and celebrations!

Wishing you the happiest of holiday seasons and looking forward to an awesome 2022 with you!

Dr. Peggy

Leader as Coach; Coach as Leader

June 9, 2021 by Dr. Peggy Marshall

Although leadership is recognized as a universal phenomenon, it still lacks a common definition and theoretical foundation that can be empirically tested. The good news is that we have shifted from the “hero” or “great man myth” into a view of leadership that is inclusionary, participatory, collaborative and transformative. An organization’s ability to be effective and adapt its environment to the post-pandemic VUCA world requires sustainable, effective leadership that cascades through the organization. Among other things, organizations need leaders for inspiration, enthusiasm, focus, and to strategically guide their vision, mission and culture. Strong leadership is often viewed as one of the most important factors in organizational health and growth yet, many organizations struggle with the development and scaling of leadership behaviors. This blog focuses on the development of coaching skills to complement leadership behaviors.

In a recent article by the World Economic Forum, a survey suggested that 40% of employees are considering leaving their jobs. 40% of employees are thinking of quitting their jobs, says survey | World Economic Forum (weforum.org) This will create an incredible talent gap for some organizations. Using coaching skills to develop and better understand the needs, values and drivers of individual behavior of employees might influence the desire to remain with an organization. Kelly in “The Dream Manager” shares that the destinies of the organization and individual potential are interwoven. He threads the concept of “best version of self” throughout his message which is inclusive of both the organization best version and individual best version. This requires that both the individual and organization deeply explore what is valued, the meaning made from those values and alignment of action with the values.

Anderson and Adams also consider exploration of values to be important to leadership behaviors. In “Scaling Leadership” the authors share that development of others starts with the development of self as leader. In addressing the VUCA world that has been exacerbated globally by the pandemic, leaders are encouraged to close their own development gaps. A self-understanding about meaning making, decision making, emotional intelligence and beliefs and assumptions guide the leader in developing skills to address the complexities of leadership. When this happens for the individual leader, it begins to cascade down through direct reports which then creates the “scale” necessary for coaching and developing leaders at all levels. The competencies of the high creative leadership behaviors identified by the authors are very much aligned with great coaching.

Boyatzis and McKee in “Resonant Leadership” add another component to “Leader as Coach; Coach as Leader”. Focusing on the benefits of emotional connection, the authors position the relationship as key to successful coaching which has been proven time and time again in the research. The resonant coaching leader not only creates resonance with followers but also creates this resonance with self through the process of renewal. Leaders are so conditioned to “doing” that they often sacrifice “being” and reflection. Boyatzis and McKee share that developing a renewal process provides increased energy and engages the mind, body, and heart in shifting to positivity and healthier relationships. Kouzes and Posner while researching and writing about leadership in “Encouraging the Heart” share this thinking with Boyatzis and McKee. They contend that effective leader coaches are connected with followers as they demonstrate genuine caring for the follower. Without this caring, the follower may experience his or her leader as simply transactional rather than transformational.

Transformational leadership connects leading and coaching, as it empowers others, is congruent with a core set of values, focuses on continuous development, and inspires a shared vision through translating dreams into reality. Blanchard, in Morgan’s “Profiles in Coaching” believes that leadership and coaching go “hand-in-hand” and that coaching is a form of leadership requiring leaders to discover their own direction, purpose and mission. Upon reflection and clarity about direction, purpose and mission, coaching and leadership involve guiding the follower’s focus and action on what is important in life through identification of strategies for accomplishing values and goals. Blanchard ties this process back into a model for servant leadership by suggesting that through the coaching process, the leadership pyramid turns upside down and the leader becomes the supporter for the self-directed achievement of followers.

Support is also a component of the coaching thinking partnership which engages the leader and direct report in gaining clarity about goals, holding followers accountable for agreed upon actions and celebrating with followers when goals are met. These leaders provide opportunities for emergent and meaningful conversations. The leader coach sees himself or herself as a barometer of where the follower is with regards to their own thought processes. Questions are asked to draw out deeper, more thoughtful, meaningful conversations and take the follower into thinking about future possibilities. Questions such as “what will success look like for this project?” and “what might create challenges for the project?” cause a follower to think both in terms of best-case scenarios while also preparing to overcome challenges. Chip and Dan Heath in “Decisive” use this exercise as a “pre-parade and post-mortem” discussion. Interestingly, it is typically easier for followers to brainstorm the challenges than the successes which creates another opportunity for coaching.

The paradox of the leader as coach phenomenon exists in duality in that it is both about the development of self and the development of relationships with others. Leaders as coaches drive change yet stabilize the team. They also honor past successes while looking forward to the future. Finally, leaders as coaches integrate both science and art. Managing the paradox contributes to its complexity and to the complexity of designing effective leader as coach development programs.

Join us on June 23^rd for our next webinar on “Leader as Coach; Coach as Leader” for more on this topic.

Overcoming Blocks to Success

January 6, 2021 by Dr. Peggy Marshall

It is the beginning of the new year. A time we focus on creating annual goals both small and large. I hesitate to bring up the subject of potential obstacles to that success, however along the way we may run into a variety of roadblocks. Dean in “Making Habits, Breaking Habits: Why We Do Things, Why We Don’t and How to Make Any Change Stick” About PsyBlog (spring.org.uk) shares that we don’t like to think about what might stop us from reaching goals as that thinking impacts our confidence in taking action. I have found this to be true for many of my clients. Yet addressing obstacles at the beginning of the year and creating a plan should they occur may eliminate or minimize the impact.

One of the biggest obstacle that holds clients back is misalignments. Misalignments include assumptions we are making about what is possible, meaning making that is out of sync with our values and what matters most, attitudes and beliefs we have developed about the actions we are taking, and biases held about people, places, and situations. Misalignments can be also be viewed as incongruence in thinking and behaving such as when you are committed to getting more sleep yet stay up late watching television.

One strategy for filtering out misalignments is to empower ourselves to be completely candid about our experiences. Byron Katie in “Loving What Is” The Work: Byron Katie’s 4 Questions – The Joy Within and Dr. Wayne Dyer in “Excuses Be-Gone” https://www.drwaynedyer.com encourage us to become brutally honest with ourselves about our perceptions of our worlds. Conducting a quick examination of these perceptions can help surface where incongruence is showing up in our lives and can identify those times when self-beliefs are blocking positive action. Katie’s 4-step process begins by asking the question “Is it (the belief) true?” Given the answer is yes, it is followed-up with “Is it absolutely true?” This second question creates a pause for deepening examination of any errors in thinking. By the second “absolutely true”, we begin to question the belief in a way that leads to transformational thought.

Katie completes the exercise with two more questions: “How do you feel when you think that way and how would you feel if you didn’t think that way?” These are both telling questions. When answering the third and fourth questions with complete transparency and honesty, we can readily admit that we do not like the way our thinking is making us feel and that we would feel more positive and engaged with our goals if we chose to think differently. Empowering yourself to think differently keeps you focused on what is possible and not what is not.

A second strategy is to align the inner with the outer by ensuring that what matters most, that is what we value, is what we act upon. Dr. Jim Loehr in “The Power of Story” https://www.jim-loehr.com explains that “our stories profoundly affect how we see ourselves”. He adds that “too few of us even recognize when we are telling stories, or what they are, or that we can change them”. The last statement, “that we can change them” is what gives us our power back. As you navigate goals, think about any stories that could be creating roadblocks to ultimate success with your goals.

A third strategy comes from “Changeology” by Norcross JOHNCNORCROSS.COM. Emphasizing that we need to control our environments which include people, places, and situations to stay focused on our goals, Norcross shares an audit process for making determinations about environments. Who in your life is going to be supportive of your goals and who might innocently derail your success? If you are counting on someone for support, you might want to be explicit about what you need or you might make assumptions about what support is available only to be disappointed. If certain places or situations lead you away from your goals, create an avoidance plan or be clever about ways to say NO when they interfere with your goals.

Finally, Holiday in “The Obstacle is the Way” “The Obstacle Is The Way” by Ryan Holiday shares that it is our perception of the obstacle that makes it real. As you consider what might become an obstacle for you as you pursue 2021 goals, consider how you make meaning about the obstacle. Remember as adults we have the power to self-direct our lives, determine our purpose, pursue our dreams, use our talents and gifts wisely, and act despite fears. We also have the ability to design environments and support systems that will lead to our greatest successes. The final question is to ask yourself “Am I investing energy into misalignments or into alignment with my dreams and goals?”

If you would like more information on overcoming blocks to success, join us for the Global IOC webinar to be held on January 13 at 10 AM EST. Zoom call login: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85671563794?pwd=TmNGbVNEYXc5LzdVcDdnUzhwdWhCdz09