Deliberate Practice – Be Open to Feedback

 

This week’s deliberate practice is about being open to feedback.

Last week I was filming my blog in my office (I live and work here with a great client and friend in a company called Park&Co in Phoenix, Arizona). Some of the Park&Co team members came to me after last week’s blog and said, “Hey Coach, come here a minute. We gotta give you some feedback. We would like to see you blow that whistle even louder. Don’t be afraid. Really give it a good blow at the end of your deliberate practice.”

I thought about it. Just like a lot of people in the first couple seconds I thought, “Who the hell are you to be telling me how loud to blow my whistle?” Then I thought about it and thought – that is probably some pretty good feedback.

The deliberate practice is to be open to feedback. Don’t do what a lot of people do and say, Yea, that is a good idea and their eyes and their body language are like kiss my #^%&. Either be open to feedback or don’t, but don’t pretend that you are. So be open to feedback! Create a culture in which everybody can give feedback and be open to new ways of doing things.

Great article this week that talked about mindset.  Great companies, great teams, and great leaders have a mindset for continually getting better.

Let me give a shameless plug.  Park&Co has a space called CoLab just for people who want to work in spaces like this and want to be collaborative.  It’s a great space in Phoenix, Arizona.

Park&Co folks thank you very much!  I know you will be really proud of me when I blow the whistle this week.

Get out there this week and really be open to feedback!

  • Posted by Coach Pete
  • Thursday, October 6th, 2011
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Deliberate Practice – Finish Strong!

 

This month’s challenge: Learning how to finish strong in your business.

I don’t know if you have noticed, but golf tournaments are usually won late on Sunday, usually on the back nine.  The same thing with football games; late in the game somebody makes a great play or somebody chokes.

I want to make sure that you learn how to finish strong and not choke.  Come up with 1 or 2 deliberate practices that are going to help you to stay focused and learn how to finish strong.  It could be health, it could be sleeping right, eating right, exercising, having the right mindset, the right energy,  getting/staying organized, or reviewing your business plan or goals daily.

Come up with 1 or 2 deliberate practices to stay focused and learn how to finish strong.  Send me your deliberate practices.  Finish strong and learn how to be a champion!

  • Posted by Coach Pete
  • Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
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Deliberate Practice – Emotional Self Regulation

 

 

Here’s your deliberate practice and highlight reel for this week:

Nothing makes me more frustrated than not being able to be connected to my hard drive, to my resources, to not be able to communicate or access my files.

Actually brain scientists have shown us that is exactly what happens to us (can’t connect to our hard drive) when we are overrun with emotions in difficult or frustrating situations.

The highlight reel for this week is from an executive I am coaching.
She called this week and said, “It was great! I had a very difficult, upsetting situation and I noticed that I took a breath and was able to stay calm and maintained my resourcefulness, creativity, and problem solving through the work we are doing.”

 

This deliberate practice is called emotional self control and regulation.  It’s like a muscle you build so that when arrows are flying at your head when you are upset or when a breakdown occurs with your staff, team or customers – you are able to take a deep breath, stay connected to your resources, solve problems, and be creative.  You will be more successful and more satisfied in what you do.

That is your deliberate practice for this week. Practice it. If you have a question about it or need help call me. Get out there and build this muscle!

  • Posted by Coach Pete
  • Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
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Deliberate Practice – Talk to Key Employees

 

Here’s some highlight film from this week working with executives all over the country. I work with a construction company in Texas and they have a deliberate practice of annual performance reviews. They also ask for feedback from employees. A longtime employee made comments about trusting the company that were a bit upsetting. The CEO went out and saw the employee to discuss his feedback. The employee said, “I can’t tell you what a difference this has made to me that you talked to me about it.”  They  talked it through and ironed out the issue.

You know this employee is going to be even more committed, more focused and will produce a higher level of results. CEOs and leaders sometimes are reluctant, they’re busy or they just don’t get out to talk or connect with their key employees – so that is your deliberate practice for this week!

Ask yourself – How often am I connecting with and having heartfelt discussions with some of my key employees?

It will make a big difference and needs to be one of your top deliberate practices. Email me at pete@peakcoach.com and let me know if you have taken the time to connect with your leaders and what kind of results you got.

Rocky had Mickey in his corner. Who do you have?

 

 

I just realized business leadership today is a little bit like a 15 round heavyweight boxing match.  It’s very difficult out there right now in the business world.

I’m a little bit like the guy in the corner with the stool and the bucket as a support for the prizefighter.  Many times coaching is about teaching leaders a new technique, but sometimes it’s just about providing some real time performance feedback and support.

Like the executive teams that participate in our quarterly leadership workout, we might just provide them a safe place to sit down, catch their breath and get a pat on the back.  I might tell them “keep your hands up… keep leading with your left hook and you’re doing great out there.” (About as much as I know about boxing!)

Leadership right now is what my client Eric Scollard calls “hard rock mining.”

So consider this deliberate practice… have someone in your corner who you can go to on a regular basis, if nothing else, to get to sit down, take a break, cool off and get some positive and objective feedback.

It’s tough out there.  Good luck.

Small Business Challenges

The biggest challenge I see my small business clients facing is leadership in the “new normal” business climate.  Their staffs are constantly bombarded with negative economic news, mounting economic pressures and increased workloads.

Leaders need to find a way to help their teams be focused, resilient and ready to compete in this new economy.  The brain scientists have proven that stress seriously limits people’s access to their own creativity and effectiveness.  Today’s business leader needs to understand how to create the right mindset, mood and messages that will create a focused and highly competitive business team.  Most small business owners reach their position because of their passion for the business, not their the leadership prowess.  The most successful leaders know their team’s winning record will be a direct result of their leadership effectiveness.

Leaders who can become Coaching Leaders will learn from the best lessons of effective sports coaches. They’ll learn how to coach people to be more successful and competitive and at the same time build loyal teams. When you are a demanding boss you are a jerk…when you are a demanding coach you are respected and loved. Think about it.

The Best Play of the Year Goes Unnoticed All Too Often

I can’t tell you how many times I see this scenario play out.  My client this morning recounted an exciting moment and breakthrough with his boss.  His boss spoke in their meeting in a way that showed great clarity, leadership and vision.  My client reported that ,”it was a watershed moment” in the boss’ leadership.

My question –  Did you take time to acknowledge the boss so that he knows how great he did???

The answer (the same answer I hear way too often).  No I didn’t (acknowledge him).

This could be a great teaching and learning moment for the boss.  It could be a case of unconscious competent  for the boss. You know, that moment where he hit the target, and he’s not sure what he did to hit it.

So if my client goes back to his boss and acknowledges him (not a thank you, but an acknowledgement) the boss may have a chance to repeat the same action more often.

When anyone in your life; coworker, spouse, significant other, or child, does something that you think is great you should take the opportunity to acknowledge them for their success.  By acknowledging the behavior, and doing it in a way that is very specific, you take a giant step towards building their confidence and reinforcing the behavior.

Think about it.  How often do you make a conscious effort to acknowledge good effort from others?  Why don’t you do it more often?  What would be the impact if you were more mindful and deliberate about acknowledging right behaviors and techniques with others?  What would happen to your team?  What would happen to you as a leader?

Great coaching leaders are constantly acknowledging good behavior as a method of reinforcing and deepening the learning.  Acknowledgment is the positive side of feedback.  Coaching leaders are consistent and well versed in both the positive side (acknowledgment) and the constructive side coaching for performance.  A good balance of both will build stronger performance, loyalty and business results.

Coaching Leaders give acknowledgments not thank yous

Acknowledgment is a form of feedback coaching leaders use to reinforce right behaviors, mindset and technique.  Many times we see “thank yous” handed out but they are not nearly as effective as a well constructed acknowledgment.

Let’s explore this further.  For demonstration, let’s pretend I am the leader of a team of project managers in a construction company.  At this morning’s meeting one of my project managers, Carl, spoke up and showed his support for the new project management software we’re trying to implement.

After the meeting I go to Carl and say that ”thank you for standing up and showing support for the new software I really appreciate that,” (a typical thank you handed out by a leader when they have the presence of mind to give a thank you).  Thank yous can be easily deflected by the recipient and have little impact.

Now listen to an acknowledgment:

I go to Carl and say, “I want to acknowledge you for showing your support of the new software.  By standing up, you demonstrated leadership and courage and commitment to our ongoing change initiative.  The difference that made was that it helped me as a leader and I’m sure helped convince others of the value of the new software.”

Acknowledgment focuses on the qualities someone demonstrated and the impact it has.  Unlike a thank you, a well-crafted acknowledgment is harder to quickly dismiss and reinforces the qualities you’re looking for in your team members.  Coaching leaders know the difference between acknowledgments and thank yous and use acknowledgements as one of their primary tools for building right behaviors and right mindsets.

Commit to practicing giving acknowledgements.  You’ll build better business results, lasting behaviors, loyalty and commitment from your team.

  • Posted by Coach Pete
  • Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
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Communicaton 101

One of the most frequent areas of skill building in our business coaching programs is in the area of communication.

Participants in the coaching are required to bring a “highlight reel” of their successes and/or challenges.  One particular executive I worked with was struggling in his relationship with his direct report.  His direct seemed to be falling into a pattern of making excuses rather than solving problems.  In the communications coaching, the client learned how to use language to more effectively set the context for the conversation and use the language of curiosity (versus the language of blame or judgment) to open up the conversation.

The client was amazed how open his direct report was when he used a different and more thoughtful approach to word choices.  The language of curiosity created a more open and collaborative space.

If you think about it, we are linguistic beings – words are “the water we swim in”.  Yet it’s startling how incompetent, sloppy and downright stupid we can be about our word choices.  Mastering communication skills lead to higher leadership effectiveness, business results and personal satisfaction.

What does the World Cup have to do with leadership?

Fresh off the excitement of the USA Soccer World Cup victory in the semi-final match last week, I am feeling like I need to reach out to all of the leaders in the world.  Well, maybe not in the world, but at least in my blog world. 

There is so much to be learned from the Team and the Coaches!  Just like our teams in the boardroom or the office, we simply must work together to achieve our goals.  There cannot be one star on the team to get us where we need to go long term.  Today we saw 11 stars on the field putting their egos, personal biases, and feelings about any coaching decisions aside.  These 11 amazing athletes use some of the same skills we have mentioned in our blogs and book.  Deliberate practice, direct feedback, listening, honesty, trust and teamwork, to name a few.  We should follow their lead and try some of them at work.

As a leader, can you imagine coaching these athletes?  They are the best of the best.  They have been doing this for years.  What could you possibly add to their game?  How do you get them to play as one?  So far it appears that their Coach has the answers to these questions.  A commentator mentioned the other day that the Coach changed the style of play from previous coaches.  That was a daring move, but she has different players than they did years ago.  Once she recognized that, she decided to focus more on skill that purely athleticism.  This would be a change for some of the veteran members of the squad.  How the Coaches presented these changes and helped the players adapt can make a big difference to their ultimate success.  She has carefully chosen her starting line-up and substitutions, prepared the team mentally and physically, and then, most importantly, she lets them play the game.  This is an important leadership lesson that we need to be reminded of sometimes.  Coach your employees, don’t boss them!  Give them the tools they need to succeed and offer them feedback as needed.  Many athletes and employees have said that they would do absolutely anything for their Coach or boss because of how that person has inspired and respected them. 

Would your “team” say that about you?  Our book, Coach to Win the Leadership Game, has a clear, step by step strategy to help you be the coaching leader your team deserves!

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