Challenging Coaching. LeaderShape Masterclass, Weds Oct 30th

 John Blakey & Ian Day, University of Chester -  a UK ICF Regional Event worth 7 CCEUs

WAKE UP and prepare to be challenged!

CHALLENGING COACHING provokes and encourage coaches to move beyond the limitations of traditional coaching. John Blakey and Ian Day detail their unique FACTS coaching model, which provides a practical and pragmatic approach focusing on:

• Feedback,
• Accountability,
• Courageous goals,
• Tension and
• Systems thinking.

Using this model enables the reader to enter the zone of uncomfortable debate that sustainably transforms individual and bottom-line performance. These expert authors and speakers explore FACTS coaching in theory and in practice using case studies, example dialogues, and practical exercises so delegates will be able to successfully challenge others using respectful yet direct techniques.

You will get:

• New skills to challenge yourself and those around you courageously
• The know-how to apply to this approach in practice
• The expertise of senior business people who have led in large, multi-national organisations
• A rallying call to a broader, collective sense of purpose!

Developing the Right Leaders for the Future and that will mean more women!

While I agree with David Clutterbuck’s insightful and valuable comments on the leadership pipeline presented in an HR Magazine article, I believe there is a much more fundamental issue that needs to be addressed urgently. We are defining talent (that is “future organisational leaders”) incorrectly. We are looking for the wrong characteristics in the first place.

How to be mindful

TODAY’S WORKPLACE creates high stress scenarios. Many organisations are reducing staff numbers, whilst expecting remaining employees to provide the same or a better level of service. While the benefits of physical exercise in relieving stress are well understood, it is only recently that attention has been paid to how the mind can operate more effectively.  Mindfulness teaches people to be present in the moment and deal with what is important. It is a brain-training technique based on paying attention to your own sense to achieve mental clarity.  It is like training a muscle – training attention to where you want it to be.

Are women better entrepreneurs?

LEADING SELF-MADE WOMEN entrepreneurs earn 17% more than the top men. However, top corporate women earn 21% less than their male equivalents – according to recent research from Barclays Wealth & Investment Management Survey.

This suggests that if we remove the cultural restraints of the male dominated corporate world, women perform better than men in the 21st century. It is interesting to also note that 6% of British women are entrepreneurs (up from 4% in 2008) compared to 12% of men and 10% of women in America.

According to this research woman entrepreneurs take fewer bank loans than men in the same position, own companies that are more likely to be sustainable, and are more driven by a work-life balance than generation of wealth.

This is consistent with LeaderShape’s experience of conducting many 360º LEIPA Assessments and coaching women leaders.  Women probably have naturally more of the attributes of leadership needed in the 21st century, but they need to overcome a few barriers to help them make the most of their potential.

Developing the Best (but very Different) Leaders for the Future

On the evening of Thursday 7th March 2013 I had the privilege of being on the panel of a Tomorrow’s Company event in London where  Professor Ted Roosevelt Malloch was the main speaker on the subject of ‘Business Ethics: From Crisis to Reform’ promoting his new book “The End of Ethics  – and a way back”
http://bit.ly/ZEOdY5
.

Other members of the panel were:

James Featherby, Chairman, Church of England Ethical Investment Advisory Group

Richard Sermon MBE, Chairman, City Values Forum

Tony Manwaring, Chief Executive, Tomorrow’s Company (chair)  

 While the focus of the lecture was more on the “end” than “the way back”, one of Prof. Malloch’s  claims is that ethics in business and finance are at their lowest ebb …. ever.  I am not sure I agree! One of the main reasons I left the corporate world in the ’80s when a main board director of a FTSE 100 company was because of the questionable ethics in the dealings between banks, auditors and commercial businesses. I think it has always been there.

 I believe the reason we are going through the current ethical turmoil is because today it is much more difficult to keep things hidden long term, and that is fundamentally because of the rapid availability of unprecedented amounts of information. Thank you Internet! Today there are just too many ways to leak from the closed shop, the old boys network and more obscure clubs. So for the first time for centuries at least, poor ethics is getting really exposed.

 Leaders basically have two options going forward: Find new clever ways to hide damaging secret information OR be transparent. The second option is far easier but only if leaders can move beyond their ego and their focus on personal gain.

 This means that for the long term benefit of society we have to do something proactive about making sure we choose leaders that can and do think beyond there ego (we call that “Transpersonal Leadership”) –
http://www.leadershape.biz/ielaunch
to read more on the subject.

 Our brains have a stone-age default that encourages us to follow strong, powerful, tough, leaders that perform. That often means they are selfish and ego-driven. As a result their main goal is to get to the top and stay there rather than take care of the stakeholders of their organisation. Yet because of our herd instinct we follow them and put up with poor behaviours and values and don’t complain until a major event disposes them – then we all complain how bad they were!

Who is guilty?

As individuals in our modern society most of us, when we reflect and consider rather than react to instinct, still want and value leaders who are performance driven but we also want leaders who are empathetic, humble, transparent, caring, engaging, empowering and whose goal is to take care of the interests of all the stakeholders – before themselves.

Our current processes of selection and development of leaders, and our natural deferment to those who are either very political and very strong, or both – means we get the leaders that maybe we deserve.

To address this we need to fundamentally change how we select and then develop our leaders of the future. We need to insist on the right behaviours and actual demonstration of the right values before individuals are even considered for promotion and responsibility. Rather than a shortage of talent, this would create a much broader base for developing future leaders, eliminate the unsuitable candidates and probably finish up with leaders who would be more competent for our time – as well as being content with a reasonable remuneration.  The result would be a much more diverse range of leaders, including more women and other currently disadvantaged groups.

There are ways to select and assess leaders (see note below) on a different basis and there are ways to develop the right behaviours and attributes to enable the right leaders to achieve their potential competence.

We just need to do it.

Note: The faculties of LeaderShape and The University of Chester (experts in Work-based Learning) have joined forces to write a new book “Leadership Assessment for Talent Development”, to be published by Kogan Page in September 2013.

Can Mindfulness Increase Productivity?

Having drawn us away from our blackberry-addicted inattentive selves we were asked to focus on the day ahead, to be mindful of what we intended and what was involved.  We were quietly led away from immediate distractions into a deeper reality where we focused first on the simple physical realities like our breathing and then into reflection on what was important and joyful in our lives. What I feel was special about Rohan’s approach was that it was balanced between the calming and the purposeful..” Mark Goyder, Founder, Tomorrow’s Company

Businesses are being asked to do more for less. Many organisations are reducing staff numbers, whilst expecting remaining staff to provide the same or a better level of service. The mindful workplace is gaining popularity in leadership development and executive coaching with forward-thinking public and private sector firms such as Transport for London, Google, Harvard Business School, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the Home Office and Toyota. It has even engendered discussions in the Daily Telegraph.

Mindfulness offers new ways of thinking and working to help meet the demands of the 21st century workplace. It can help people learn to manage their own minds, to improve workplace resilience, focus and concentration, leading to improved performance and productivity. It’s like training a muscle – training attention to where you want it to be.  A large volume of research and the new body of neuroscience support its use in finding space in a frantic world.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness has been shown to have significant effects in dealing with challenging situations through creating a specific mental and physical state. Increasingly it is being used in companies to improve communication, reduce stress and aid creativity.  A route to this outcome is through a continuous practice of carefully paying attention, in a particular way and on purpose. Practitioners may learn to slow down or stop brain chatter and automatic or habitual reactions.

The science

Mindfulness is at the heart of authoritative clinical approaches to stress reduction and the treatment of depression.  Known as  MBCT,  Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is part of a UK national template set out by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE.)   Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) follows similar principles and practices.  Other scientific evidence shows proven impacts on the mind and body, following a range of mindfulness processes.

Read more about the neuroscience and how we can learn to regulate our actions by controlling the Pre-Frontal cortex (PFC).

 

What does the programme in business involve?

Find out how mindfulness training might work within your organisation incorporating:

• Short mindfulness session as part of a coaching or workshop session to help focus and to leave unhelpful distractions behind.
• A programme enabling individuals to identify their own preferred mindful practices and supporting development into a positive habit
• Longer mindfulness sessions or workshops to help embed mindful practices in a department or organisation.

Contact LeaderShape to discuss the expertise we can bring to you in this area.

Developing Public Health with County and District Councils

“A simple methodology to unlock possibilities and energy, when people are struggling with budgetary doom and gloom’’

by Cllr Michael Bamford and Cllr Diana Kersley

A few months ago, we wrote about the pilot between Suffolk County Council, Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils and the Suffolk Public Health team. We are delighted to provide an update on this very successful project, which offers a framework for other two tier areas.

Public Health in Suffolk made an early transfer to the County Council. Embedding Public Health in Local Government gave an opportunity to achieve greater collaboration and coordinate focus on health and wellbeing. It also allowed time to understand different contributions, including those of the District Councils.

We wanted to build a framework to make the most of what each organisation had to offer and reduce inequalities in health and wellbeing. Like all public services, the change came at a time when the service was also coping with significant reductions in capacity; finding a way to help communities do more for themselves