Coaching for Leaders

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131: How to Control Your Emotions and Take the Next Step, with Bonni Stachowiak Mar 10, 2014

Show notes

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*. First question from Khrist and a few suggestions from us: Recognize your hot buttons or trigger point Avoid handling things in the midst of anger and emotion, if you can avoid them (for example, don't send emails when angry) Instead, write out your thoughts just for yourself Get input from others who are not as close to the situation Start with questions and not accusations/assumptions Sometimes a bit of expressed anger or frustration is OK, assuming it is genuine Consider what you are really able to do or not do Give yourself grace too - none of us are perfect at handling these situations In fact, we discover the most from imperfect situations Book recommendation: Daring Greatly by Brene Brown* Book recommendation: Difficult Conversations* Video recommendation: Brene Brown's first and second TED talks Past podcast recommendation: How to Lead When Someone is Driving You Nuts [episode #48] Second question from Huzefa and a few suggestions from us: What is it you want about being an entrepreneur and could you achieve it without the risk? Three elements you'd need to be successful: Skill in the field Passion for the work Market of customers who will pay what you are worth Could you do a test-run or two on a small client project that would prove your model and lessen risk? Book recommendation: Empowered manager by Peter Block* Book recommendation: Business Model Generation* Book recommendation: Business Plan In A Day by Rhonda Abrams* Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

130: Your Two Biggest Critics and How to Handle Them Mar 03, 2014

Show notes

What do you do when you're the target of criticism? Here are the two kinds of critics that show up at work in the workplace and also how to address them. It all comes back to Mathnet Two kinds of critics The bully The champion Why you need your critics Hawthorne studies (Harvard article) (Economist article) Benefits You Get From A Recognition Program (episode #79) with Michelle Smith of O.C. Tanner “Our chief want in life is someone who will make us do what we can.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson Actions you can take Listen and be calm (useful for both the bully and the champion) Our urge is to become defensive It may put up barriers to hearing something of value If the criticism is unwarranted, you’re the one keeping your cool (unless the other party is factually wrong in a public forum) If the other party is factually wrong in public, make your case confidently and professionally Set aside the tone or personal attack (useful for both the bully and the champion) Is there value in what the person is saying, beyond the tone? Ask a more independent party to analyze it for you. Ask for feedback and criticism (useful with the champion) “Be your own toughest critic. Demand excellent performance from yourself and your leadership will thrive in the face of adversity.” -Doug Conant This worked for me in my first full-time job Take advice of Tom Henschel for episode #107 Ask often Say thank you or can you help me understand Do something with it or don’t Embrace the criticism and make change (useful for both the bully and the champion) Realize that a lot of people use criticism as a primary tool for development Take one suggestion this week to actually put into action Love your enemy (useful with the bully, and sometimes the champion) Find something about them you can love Feel sorry for them Be glad you're not married to them What if your boss is the bully? Try one or more things above that you think might help Are you getting more than you're giving? If not, work towards another opportunity Don't throw them under the bus on the way out the door To Those Who Want Great Careers: Don’t Do What This Guy Did Other episodes that might help Benefits You Get From A Recognition Program (episode #79) Ten Ways To Pick Yourself Up When You’re Beaten Down (episode #85) Three Steps To Soliciting Feedback (episode #107) Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." -William Shakespeare Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

129: How to Create a Personal Knowledge Management System, with Bonni Stachowiak Feb 24, 2014

Show notes

“Knowledge management is a set of processes, individually constructed, to help each of us make sense of our world and work more effectively.” -Harold Jarche Capture Capturing through the stream Twitter Some social media Live TV Live radio Capturing through subscriptions Email updates and newsletters Podcasts RSS via services like Feedly.com Curate Bonni uses Delicious (link to her library) Dave uses Pinboard (link to his library) Evernote Pocket Kindle App Snippefy app (useful to export notes and highlights from Kindle) Diigo Create Social media postings Conversation starters Classroom/meeting starters Writing Bonni's blog is TeachingInHigherEd.com How would you like to get info from Dave? Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

128: Four Practices for Leading an Effective Meeting Feb 17, 2014

Show notes

If you do these four things with consistency at the meetings you lead, you’ll get vastly better results from the investment you are making in meeting time. Worst offenses Trying to come up with a topic to talk about Let's share what's going on (without any context for how/why) Information sharing only No agenda Too many agenda items People on devices Too many meetings total Good news! Many of us have almost complete control over how we run meetings as leaders 1. Determine if the meeting needs to be held at all Is it for brainstorming, training that needs to be done in person, or making a decision? Yes, have the meeting. Is it for sharing of information? No, find a better way to get the information to people. Consider the real cost of staff time 2. Have written or understood guidelines on communication, technology, decision-making, and overall culture of your meetings What do we do when we get off task? How will we capture what is decided and/or next actions? What rules will we have around the use of technology during meetings? Is PowerPoint needed? 3. Set and send agenda in advance with the topic for discussion and end goal of the meeting, along with start and end times If the meeting discussion drifts, call attention to it and decide on addressing or tabling Begin and end on time (considering starting a bit after the hour or ending a bit early) 4. Have everyone walk out of the room with clear action items Follow-up with documentation shortly thereafter Meeting notes - mindmapping (starting point) and outlining (finishing point). I use MindNode and OmniOutliner, respectively. What’s a best practice you’ve discovered for leading effective meetings? Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

127: Why Talking About Your Mistakes Helps You Lead Better Feb 10, 2014

Show notes

Have you considered telling the people you lead about the mistakes you’ve made? On this episode, why you lead better when you share your mistakes. “Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.” -Dale Carnegie Here are the benefits to talking about your mistakes with others: You get people’s attention. You open the door for people to be more willing to accept coaching. You give people a realistic path of what it looks like to learn how to lead. It reminds you what it was like to learn that skill in the first place. It keeps you humble. Two words of caution: Make sure you share real mistakes you’ve made. Sadly, not every organization values this kind of transparency. Be smart about the politics where you are. Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

126: How to Be Interesting When Pitching an Idea Feb 03, 2014

Show notes

Here's some advice that many of us have heard when we starting giving presentations or speeches for the first time: “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, tell ’em, tell ’em what you told ’em.” That’s lousy advice. Here's how to do better. Four great and interesting speeches, with varying levels of importance: Honoring the dead - The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln Civil rights - I Have A Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A successful product launch - The iPhone Announcement by Steve Jobs Human personality - The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain Three commonalities that these four very different "pitches" share. They all: Tell a story of the problem Articulate a vision Inspire action Resources you may wish to investigate: The Quick and Easy Way To Effective Speaking* by Dale Carnegie Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences* by Nancy Duarte SPIN Selling* by Neil Rackham Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

125: How to Tackle Time Management, with Bonni Stachowiak Jan 27, 2014

Show notes

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*. 1. Question about leading during a school closing from Jermaine We recommended episode #55 with Carol Taylor on How To Lead In A Crisis. 2. Question about giving feedback from Sue 3. Question about prioritizing emails and voice mail from Matt Dave's task management system: OmniFocus Bonni's task management system: Remember The Milk VIP contacts and flagging on iOS7 for the iPhone and iPad: How To See Important Messages in iOS7 Mail from The Mac Observer Mailbox for iPhone Sanebox.com We recommended episode #109 on Seven Online Tools That Will Help You Do Your Best Work. We recommended episode #119 with David Sparks on How To Get Control Of Your Email. 4. Question about small tasks and large tasks from Catherine 5. Question about hiring the right person for a non-profit Check on episodes #89 and #90, both on StrengthsFinder with Steve Dosier What’s one new practice you’ll start with your time management this week? Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

124: How to Get What You Really Want Out of Conflict, with Bonni Stachowiak Jan 20, 2014

Show notes

123: The Practical Pursuit of Work-Life Balance, with John Corcoran Jan 13, 2014

Show notes

John Corcoran: Smart Business Revolution Key Points Ursula Burns (CEO of Xerox) and her thoughts on work-life balance, as reported by the Wall Street Journal The Storyline Productivity Schedule (used by John) David Allen's Getting Things Done* (both John and Dave use the philosophy of this system) ProductiveFlourishing.com (John uses) OmniFocus (Dave's task management system) Drafts (how Dave captures thoughts throughout the day) 5 Days To Your Best Year Ever (Dave attended this course over the holidays to set his 2014 goals) iCloud calendars (Dave's family uses this to coordinate family scheduling) Boomerang for Gmail (John uses this to delay sending emails) Coaching for Leaders episode #70: How Three Words Can Drive Your Development This Year (Dave's podcast that aired in early 2013 that John and Dave referenced during the show) Book recommendation: Give and Take by Adam Grant* Book recommendation: How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie* Book recommendation: The Secrets of Happy Families by Bruce Feiler* (mentioned by Dave post-interview) Follow Dave's reading on GoodReads.com by visiting CoachingforLeaders.com/goodreads Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

122: How to Create Joy at Work, with Richard Sheridan Jan 06, 2014

Show notes

Richard Sheridan: Joy, Inc. Author of the new book Joy, Inc.* CEO, Menlo Innovations Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

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