Kit Prendergast, PCC
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Tag Archives: strengths
Tips for Team Coaching
As a leader in your organization, you are tasked with bringing out the best of your employees for the productivity of your company. Sounds easy but it’s tougher than it looks especially in these economic times when everyone feels stretched. But it can be done both with your direct individual reports but also your project teams or department staff.
Lifting Together Makes the Difference
Here’s how . . . use a strengths based coaching approach with powerful questions. One piece of the executive coaching program that I offer is an intensive hands-on training and practice on how to use basic coaching skills to engage and motivate employees. We start with individual one-on-one practice with employees doing their annual reviews or wanting to take their careers to that next level within the company. Coaching may also be appropriate for employees struggling with performance expectations, communication problems or interpersonal conflicts with their colleagues.
With this practice behind them, leaders move to a more complicated coaching challenge – working with their designated teams around specific outcomes. There are more moving parts including difference in personalities and communication styles that can make leading a team successfully much more challenging.
You Don’t Have to Do All the Work
But here’s the trick . . . know and use the same coaching philosophy, collaborative approach and basic powerful questions that work so well with individuals and just expand them for the larger group. Listen closely and concentrate on giving your team the space and support to contribute their ideas and strengths.
You don’t have to say much in the beginning – just get out of their way and let them do what you hired them to do. Acknowledge their wisdom with the result that you may be pleasantly surprised that with a coaching approach you’ve opened up a wealth of possibilities, creative thinking and some excellent options. And you didn’t have to do all the work!
It’s a very fast paced competitive work world. Just like this great picture of the Army moving the Red Cross tent in the pouring rain. Everyone needs to contribute their best strength, lift together and move forward to the designated goal or vision. It can work really well with the right kind of leadership – do you have what it takes?
The Secret to Knowing Your Own Talents
It’s actually easier than we think. A natural talent is the way we think, act or behave that comes easily to us with genuine enjoyment.
It’s almost like “second nature”.
Ask yourself these five powerful “what” questions and then confirm your answers by simply watching yourself when you are the happiest and “at your best”. The answers are right there in front of you.
- What do I gravitate toward?
- What appeals to me spontaneously?
- What comes easily to me?
- What attracts others to me? What do they say about my talents?
- What do I genuinely enjoy doing? Who do I enjoy being?
And our natural talents often have a central theme to them – like a red thread running through them. The next step of clarifying this theme(s) will be the single most important work you can do for yourself as you are growing and developing your professional career.
Posted in Kit's Tips
Tagged Career, change, strengths, Talent Development, Visioning
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StandOut: Find Your Edge at Work
StandOut: Find Your Edge at Work, by Marcus Buckingham, One Thing Productions, Inc.
This brand-new book and assessment continues Buckingham’s reputation as the national leader in the strengths movement. For 20 years, Buckingham worked for The Gallup Organization studying what makes the real difference in exceptional performance for both employees and their managers. Since then he has written and presented extensively on the power of knowing your own natural strengths and those of the people who work for you and with you.
This newest addition to the strengths movement is particularly good for people who have not taken the original assessment because this is more targeted. Out of nine strength roles, you will learn your top two and then receive specific advice on how to maximize these strengths in your career.
It’s simpler and more applicable than the earlier assessments. I would recommend it!
Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies
Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies by Joshua Waldman, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011.
There are lots of books out there on social media but this is the first I’ve seen that specifically addresses social media and the job search. It’s well written (like many of the Dummies books) and tackles one social media resource per chapter. It even covers personal branding and the nuances of weaving your brand into your internet presence. And of course, my favorite chapter is on LinkedIn.
Waldman keeps it simple, strategic and smart. Perfect for professionals like me!
Posted in Kit's Resources & Book Reviews
Tagged Career, change, Networking, social media, strengths
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To Delegate or Not? A Struggle for Leaders
To delegate or not? Delegation is one of biggest challenges for a leader in today’s work world. With work loads increasing, more complex problems to solve and fewer staff to cover the bases it’s no surprise that anyone in a leadership role (managers, supervisors, team leads etc.) struggle with the who, what, when, why and how of delegating wisely.
Why is it so hard?
As a executive coach, this is what I hear from both experienced leaders and emerging leaders in both corporate, government and non-profit business environments.
- It takes too much time for me to explain it.
- I’m not sure it will be done right.
- I could do it faster, easier, cheaper etc.
- If someone else does it – maybe I’m not needed as much.
- I don’t want to bother people – they’re already working hard enough.
- I don’t want to be self-important. (Jimmy Carter carrying his own suitcase)
Getting In Our Own Way
So the bottom line is that we often get in our own way. Are we a perfectionist? No one else can do it as well as me. Or do we delegate too much to one person that we trust but then others don’t get a chance. Are we concerned that if the other person does a great job that maybe – just maybe – we will be working our way out of a job. Or maybe it’s simply the rush we get from being that “go-to” person all the time even if it means working 24/7.
Those are important questions to ask ourselves. Are we actually the biggest obstacle to ourselves because we can’t get out of our own way?
What does a good role model look like?
Interesting, leaders often mention that they haven’t had a good role model in delegating over the years either from parents, colleagues or bosses. So in a great round robin discussion these 7 qualities were identified by experienced leaders as critical for a “ideal delegator”.
- They create a “culture of delegation”.
- They create a “culture of mutual trust”.
- They plan ahead so they aren’t “dumping” tasks on others.
- They delegate “results” not just “activities”.
- They delegate both important and maintenance tasks as well.
- They have confidence in their staff and want to utilize their staff’s strengths.
- They are truly committed to growing & developing their staff.
So how do you measure up? Are you willing to get out of the way and let others grow, develop and succeed? If so, you will be delightfully surprised how it will help you be more productive, manage your time and energy better and ultimately provide greater benefits to your own company. And the icing on the cake is less stressLet me know how you are doing!