Leaders Must Be Coaches and Mentors

Leaders Focus on Long-Term Initiatives and the Development of People

In order to develop the skills and talents of your people, you must become a good coach. A good coach will unleash the often hidden talents in a person, while also retaining the capability to provide counsel on wrong decisions and advice on fixing problematic performance issues.

Anyone can become a good coach; yet it takes a very special person to be a good coach.

Both of these seemingly contradictory statements are true.

You certainly already possess some of the attributes of a dynamic coach, and those characteristics that do not come naturally can be learned.

First and foremost, as is true with all teachers, coaches must themselves be active learners. The successful coach takes on the mindset that he or she will never stop learning, no matter how "far they have come." This means developing one’s specific work related skills, and increasing knowledge of general skills and talents through reading, taking formal classes and seminars, and by thoughtful discussion with peers.

When you enter a coaching relationship, you are taking on an individual with a package of talents, weaknesses, pluses, minuses, and probably contradictions. Your job is to nurture and develop that package to the point at which it produces maximum benefit for the organization and the individual himself. 

The aim of all coaching is personal growth so that the subordinate staff member can contribute maximum effort to the organization. Problems and confrontations can be major character builders. Part of the coach’s role is to help the staff member understand how a problem or a failed effort can be turned into a positive learning situation and experience. 

In world-class organizations, we have seen that the coaching function is capable of accomplishing some major organizational objectives. Successful coaching can:

• Fully orient a new employee to the company and its culture.
• Instill confidence through teaching general and specific knowledge about the company.
• Confront troublesome situations.
• Counsel an employee through rough and uncertain waters on a personal or professional basis.

Coaching accomplishes all of this through the power of the one-on-one relationship. The key is for your own subordinates to catch the excitement of learning when they see that excitement in you.

Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself:

How much of your time is spent on getting things done or focusing on ensuring results?

How much of your time is spent in meetings, on conference calls and answering email?

Add the percentages together. If your answer is greater than 85%, you may have a problem on your hands, because the time remaining is all that you have left to develop your people. 

This answer may also provide you with insights into how you can better prioritize your work activities, perhaps by delegating some of the "doing" work so that you can focus on long-term initiatives and the development of your people.

This article is partially excerpted from our top-ranked personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, which is available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon. 

You Lead People. You Don't Manage Them.

Lead People. Manage Things, Processes, Procedures and Policies. 

Most people who attain any level of success in their careers end up managing and leading others at some point. 

Those who are most successful in these endeavors are the ones who understand they are leading people, not inanimate departments or teams within organizations. In a nutshell, a good leader leads people and manages things, processes, procedures, and policies.

Another hallmark of a good leader is the knowledge that their role is not to create more followers, but to produce more leaders for the organization. Managers desire followers, not leaders. This is one reason why, in the eyes of leadership guru Warren G. Bennis, "Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led."

Once you are put into a leadership position (of a team, department, unit, or an entire organization), your primary role changes. Your key focus becomes a bigger picture combined with a longer term perspective, while your other main responsibility is to develop your people. 

Jack Welch described this transition in these words: "Before you become a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."

Of course, not all your attention is paid to others. You still have the responsibility to continue growing and developing yourself as well. "Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself," counseled legendary IBM Chairman Thomas J. Watson (who reigned in a time when there were few, if any, women leaders in the business world and hence the gender stereotype of his remarks).

You can find millions of words, thousands of books and hundreds of training programs devoted to the topic of leadership. Here are a few of these words for your consideration:

The three "C's" of leadership are Consideration, Caring and Courtesy. Be polite to everyone. ~ Brian Tracy

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. ~ Kenneth Blanchard

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly. ~ Jim Rohn

Men can be stimulated to show off their good qualities to the leader who seems to think they have good qualities. ~ John Richelsen

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test. ~ Elbert G. Hubbard

This article is partially excerpted from our top-ranked personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, which is available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon. 

Using Your Intuitive Skills

Checklist for Evaluating Your Intuition 

Here are some steps for using and evaluating your intuition whenever a hard decision is forthcoming:

1.    Write down the key issue or issues being faced.

2.   List the major benefits expected from a right decision and the major consequences probable if the decision is wrong.

3.   Identify as many options as possible.

4.   Analyze and review each option separately, listing the pros, cons and costs of each.

5.   Eliminate the options that appear too risky or have consequences beyond the organization's tolerance level.

6.   Discuss and obtain feedback of the remaining options from people whose judgment and wisdom you respect, both from within and outside the organization.  

7.    Do an internal intuition check by asking yourself:

a) all else being equal, which option would I choose? Why?

b) what motivates you to pick one option over another?

c)  what is the worst thing that can happen from a wrong decision?

d) how will you know if the decision is wrong? Would you be able to change course or direction if this occurs?

e) can you look those you respect in the eyes and honesty say, "I feel right about this decision"?

8.   Make your decision. If this is a team decision, present your findings and recommendations to the team.

9.   Make it work. But be willing to change course or direction if the results being generated do not live up to expectations.

Of course, in question 7a above, all is not going to be equal. Part of your implementation plan, therefore needs to make your preferred option as close to equal, or better than equal, to any of the other options. 

This article is partially excerpted from our top-ranked personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, which is available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon. 

Use Your Intuitive Instincts

Your Intuition Can Be A Leadership Advantage 

Numerous surveys have revealed that one of the key factors in helping successful organizational leaders make tough decisions is their ability to trust their intuitive instincts.

This is not surprising, for intuitive people tend to be efficient at gathering sufficient information to put them at ease when making decisions. It appears that they are also able to quickly assess and analyze such information and integrate it with their personal accumulation of experience, knowledge, understanding, and insights to produce worthy decisions.

Although intuitive skills appear more natural and stronger in some leaders, it is also a skill that can be learned and honed over time. But only for those who can let go of a total reliance on logic, evidentiary data and number crunching. 

As acclaimed journalist and author Roy Rowan notes, "This feeling, this little whisper from deep inside your brain may contain far more information, both facts and impressions, than you are likely to obtain from hours of analysis."

The feeling that Rowan describes is often referred to as one's gut instincts or heartfelt (non-rational) feelings. 

Outside observers might interpret intuitive decisions as rash impulses, but in reality they are a blend of powerful intuition, insights and understanding developed from prior experiences, and clear-headed logic. The stronger the feelings, and the better the person's track record from previous intuitive decisions, the greater are the odds that the intuitive decision is the best one.

A word of caution though. While leaning on your intuition can be a leadership advantage, it can also be a leadership weakness if relied upon to the exclusion of hard-core data and the recommendations and intuition of your leadership colleagues. 

This article is partially excerpted from our top-ranked personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, which is available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon.