Posts Tagged ‘CEO coaching’

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.

Coaching – A Sacred Trust

One of the greatest coaches of all times, John Wooden, (lead UCLA men’s basketball team to 7 consecutive championships) knew how important it was to be trusted as a Coach.  Here’s what he said “I considered it a sacred trust: helping to mold character, instill productive principles and values, and provide a positive example for those under my supervision”.  He obviously knew something about Coaching!

We incorporate many of the all-time great Coach’s philosophies into our CEO Coaching, Leadership Coaching and Family Business Coaching.

Top 5 ways to be a trusted Coach and achieve peak performance:

#1.  Model the way (right actions, attitude, determination)

#2.  Listen – the only way to understand what motivates your followers

#3.  Show you care – pay attention and ask about the details of their lives

#4.  Be consistent – reliability is the center of trust

#5.  Expect greatness from your followers before they even believe in it

Persistence is the road to breakthrough in CEO Coaching

I’m coaching a client over the past 90 days and we were working on him coaching one of the members of his team.  In my CEO coaching I am always helping the leader develop their unique coaching stand.  I encourage them to repeat the coaching messages over and over again.  While it seems repetitive and mundane, and leaders at times lose faith along the way — many times the breakthrough is just around the corner.  Great coaching leaders are determined and never give up!

So this week the client showed up with a breakthrough.  He said he was working with his stubborn employee and had been giving him the same message for several weeks and this week it finally got through!.  He said to the employee “I will lead you to success if you let me”. The employee said finally, and almost with relief, “I know.”

The client said to me “you said keep saying it and eventually he will hear it, but I’ll be honest with you I didn’t think it was going to occur.”  Well it did!

Decide upon your unique coaching stand, hone your messages, and repeat them time and time again!  You never know when the breakthrough is going to occur, but when it does it will have been worth all of the time and effort. 

Share with me a recent breakthrough you have had as a leader.

  • Posted by Coach Pete
  • Monday, June 28th, 2010
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Coaching leaders get more than success – they get to be significant

In my research for my upcoming book, End the Leadership Madness – The “Coach Approach” to Extraordinary Business Results,I am studying many of the greatest coaches from a variety of fields of endeavor (sports, performing arts, etc). One of them is Lou Holtz, the famous Notre Dame Football Coach. I thought he did a wonderful job of answering the “why coaching?” question.

He writes “Coaching gives one a chance to be successful as well as significant. The difference between those two is that when you die, your success comes to an end. When you are significant, you continue to help others be successful long after you are gone. Significance lasts many lifetimes. That is why people teach, people lead, and why people coach. As I leave the field of play, I enjoy the feeling of being a winning coach. But more important, I hope that I have been a person of significance in the lives of these young men”.

In my work as a CEO Coach and Family Business CoachI have found that Coaching creates a stronger and deeper connection to people and their willingness to work hard and stretch for extraordinary levels of business results. But as Coach Holtz says, even more important is that I believe the impact you have as a coaching leader runs deeper and wider into how people live their lives, and in turn impact others.

Our PACE Coaching System was designed as a result of CEOs asking for a simple and effective way to coach their staff. It is an integral part of all of our business coaching engagements. Whether or not you use PACE, learn how to coach, and become significant!

  • Posted by Coach Pete
  • Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
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Coaching Mindset: Grapes or Employees – Keep Them on the Verge of Discomfort for Business Results

What do winemaking and business have in common? 

While celebrating our 20th anniversary, Karen and I visited the Napa Valley wineries.  A friend of mine, Tony Wasowicz, is the Chief Winemaker at Michel-Schlumberger Wines (http://www.michelschlumberger.com/).  Tony gave us a tour and explained all of the latest thinking on organic farming.  I asked naively, “so I imagine that you give the grapes a good supply of water?”  He said, “no, in fact we found that when we gave them a plentiful supply of water they became plump and fat, and not very flavorful.  Tony explained that they found that if they kept the grapes on the edge of starvation it creates the most fruitful and delicious grape which in turn makes the best wine. 

That hit me right between the eyes!  Isn’t it the same in life and business?  If you look at human nature, when things are plentiful and easy, we tend to become lethargic, bloated, and not as fulfilled or sharp.  It’s the same thing in Coaching.  As a leader it is your job to keep people in a state of disequilibrium.  We need to actually keep them on the edge of competitiveness and challenging themselves to create the greatest performance, focus, and execution.  Now, not to by cynical, but the folks who are not leaders are kind of sitting back hoping they can be plump, fat and not working that hard.

As a Coaching Leader, it is your job to make sure that you keep them stretched and growing.  Growth and change require a certain amount of discomfort, just like the grapes.  As a Coach, don’t let your people become raisins ro bloated grapes, challenge them just enough.  In winemaking discomfort leads to great tasting wine – In Business Coaching discomfort leads to great business results and personal satisfaction.  In my work as a CEO Coach, I find that most CEOs are constantly trying to create the right amount of disequilibrium with their staff.  Keep stretching them!  Try the Coach Approach and you and your team will get the most our of each other.

  • Posted by Coach Pete
  • Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
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