Listening
Give Advice = Change Today/Avoid Advice = Grow the Future
You remember last month one of the aspects that Karen Anderson lifted up in her article was about easy change and hard change. You were reminded of our Powerful Coaching seminar: technical change vs adaptive change. Adaptive change is the hard stuff; changing your mindset, your core principles and values. Dumping the habit of giving…
Read MoreThoughts for Uncertain Times
“In times of great change, the learners will inherit the Earth while those attached to old certainties will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Eric Hoffer What is this time of uncertainty teaching us? Coach leaders are present and future focused. We are learners and hold a growth…
Read MoreA December Wish List
Wish #1 – Committed Listening “December is a month of joy and happiness and to finish what you started.” What a year we have had, a year we shall never forget. A year that has enveloped us with uncertainty and a huge range of emotions. And here we are, since everything changed in March, we…
Read MoreLeadership in Uncertain Times Calls for Sharp Focus on Interpersonal Skills
If you were to take some time to list the attributes of the best leader you have ever experienced and then make a separate list of the attributes of the worst leader you have experienced, it is likely that interpersonal skills–or the lack of them—comprise a significant part of your list. Most likely, your list…
Read MoreCourageous Conversations
The things I have loved about Coaching are the powerful, never perfect, progressive communication skills. How to be a better listener. How to respond in a way so that the other person feels heard. How to be self-aware of my own feelings and emotions and manage them in conversations. One thing I know for sure,…
Read MoreSurvival Skill #1: Empathy, not Sympathy
“Empathy is not connecting to an experience.Empathy is connecting to the emotions that underpin an experience.” Brené Brown’s, Dare to Lead, speaks to a survival skill for pushing through this difficult time. The COVID-19 experience has opened up a range of emotions some of which we have never felt before. Brené says, “When the heart…
Read MoreClimbing High, Just Like Jack
This month, in the midst of a pandemic, my intent is to mix a little lightness with our current reality. “Jack and the Beanstalk” is an old, old story about how a young boy engages in actions with the desire to be of service to his mother and himself – both living in a current…
Read MoreMindful or Mindless – It’s a Choice
How mindful are you of your own mindfulness? Sounds like a silly question and yet the research supports the impact of positive mindfulness and shows it can even turn back the clock. For example, Ellen Langer, professor of psychology at Harvard University, and researcher who has spent over 40 years researching mindfulness, conducted the “counter-clockwise”…
Read MoreAn Ode to October
Amazing! It’s already October . . . and, without a doubt, we’ve moved into the work . . . almost forgetting that glorious summer vacation, the great books we have read, or the feeling of having enough rest and relaxation. Some of you are already talking about how tired you are feeling. The “O” in…
Read MoreThree Important Points about Strengthening Empathy
People sometimes ask us, “Why do you place such a strong emphasis on paraphrasing in your work? We do it for multiple reasons and one important one is to connect to the emotions expressed by the speaker. In order to connect to the emotions, you must first feel those emotions. For without those feelings, you…
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