A sudden realization one afternoon got me thinking about what it takes to become a good leader.  It came down to a very simple idea that painters of masterpieces have been using for centuries.  We can take that idea and improve our own mastery of the art of leadership.  It’s the idea of a leadership sketchbook.  

Picture Story

It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. 

A few years back, my wife and I were visiting the Prado Museum in Madrid to see the art work of some of the masters.  We wandered through the different galleries, marveling at the masterpieces on display – scenes of people, animals, still-life.  All expertly and creatively done, each brush stroke evoking moods and ideas.

Entering one gallery, we encountered a lighted case that featured a scrap of paper not much larger than a 5×8 card.  On it was a rough pencil sketch of an indoor scene by a window.  Next to it was another sketch.  It was the same scene but from a slightly different angle.  There were more drawings, each slightly better, some elements done in greater detail, or viewed from a slightly different perspective.  As the drawings progressed, the artist also experimented with lighting and color.

The trail of sketches ultimately led us to the final product.  This one was framed, displayed on a wall of its own, much larger and exquisitely rendered.

Somehow, I had this sense that a masterpiece was created in a burst of inspiration on a single canvas, from a great idea fully realized.  On display in front of me was the opposite of that belief.  What became the masterpiece began more as the seed of an idea, scratched out on a piece of paper not much different from a cocktail napkin.

Through painstaking repetition and infinite adjustments, the artist refines the work and gives it clarity.  With more practice she perfects the different parts of the whole, constantly tinkering with relationships, endlessly seeking the best fit, and adding color and light along the way.

Is leadership really that different?

Painting Your Masterpiece

Perhaps there are some leadership masters out there, just as there are naturally talented musicians, athletes, and artists, but the vast majority of us are not that gifted.  If we want to get good at something, we have to work at it.  Even those with talent won’t get far unless they match their in-born ability with discipline and focused effort.

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. – Tim Notke, basketball coach Click To Tweet

It’s the same with leadership.  Leadership can be taught, learned, improved upon.  Like learning an instrument, preparing for a marathon, or painting a work of art, leadership is a skill that can be acquired and refined. 

Artists use sketch books to put their ideas onto paper and practice their drawing technique.  How can we replicate this idea and create a kind of leadership sketchbook?

The Leader’s Sketchbook

On a daily basis, leaders who want to learn and improve their practice do things like these:

Reviewing – When a key event is over, they conduct an after-action review.  They look back, think about how things went, and decide how they can do better the next time.  Before the event happens again, they read the reviews from the last time to avoid making the same mistakes.

Requesting feedback – They seek candid input from peers, teammates and bosses.  They recognize that they may not be the best judge of how well or poorly they are doing; those who are led are in a better position to provide helpful input.  Learning leaders take advantage of lots of ways to get helpful feedback beyond just the annual review.

Responding, not reacting – When difficult problems arise, they don’t instantly react, following their gut. They pause, consider different perspectives, consult experienced others, think about secondary and tertiary effects, and then they respond deliberately.  They may act quickly and resolutely, but never in haste.

Reading – They read about the lives and experiences of other leaders, and about the tactics and techniques of their trade.  They visualize themselves in other people’s circumstances and think about what they might have done under the same conditions.  In doing so, they learn from the experiences of others.

Analyzing other leaders – They look at the leaders around them and ask themselves what makes one leader appealing and inspiring?  What is it about another that robs me of motivation?  They think about these things deliberately, and work to adjust their own behaviors accordingly.  Based on their observations, they intentionally try to be more like the leaders they admire, less like the ones that they do not.

Going to school – Artists take classes to improve their ability to work in a medium.  Leaders can do the same, saving time and learning from the experts.  Some universities offer online classes, and there are some quality free YouTube videos available (including a few of my own); another resource is to check out my online course Essential Leadership Skills for the New Manager.

Journaling – A final technique is to consolidate all those lessons and observations from above in a notebook dedicated to the purpose.  Like the artist’s sketchbook, we can fill this leadership sketchbook with thoughts and ideas, favorite quotes, pitfalls to avoid in the future, and things we want to do better next time.  Write it all out on actual paper with pen or pencil – there is something concrete about the focused act of writing down a thought that helps sear it into our minds and makes us more likely to act on it in the future.

Leadership Sketchbook – The Takeaway

Maybe that museum display of the practice drawings struck me because most of the time, all we see is the final product.  Perfectly hung, expertly lit, in full size and color, mounted in a custom display to highlight the strength and quality of the work, we see the masterpiece and are amazed.  How could one person have created such beauty?

The answer is that they worked at it.  They used a sketchbook to capture and refine their ideas.  They deliberately focused on key areas and worked to improve them, and they did so with perseverance over time.  The masters weren’t born great, they made themselves great.  For leaders, it is the same.

Things worth remembering:

Every master was once just a kid with a crayon.There are no bleachers in the art studio, but that’s where the masters developed their skillLeaders, like artists, have the power to add color and lightEven Leonardo DaVinci had a sketchbook.

The biggest difference between the leader and the artist is that at some point the masterpiece is hung upon the wall, while the leader’s work is never fully finished.

Lead On!

Read The Score That Matters https://amzn.to/3zbDGhi

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com

Notes: 

How to create a learning organization – Set the tone at the top. The senior leader needs to model this behavior. Create peer groups at your place of work. Team learning is important. Give people the responsibility to lead training sessions. Support your teammates. Pay for them to go to conferences, hire coaches, and learn. Commonalities among leaders who sustain excellence: They are curious. They have no confirmation bias. They have high standards. They respect all members of their team. They have a vision and goals and they share them with their team. GPS – Goals, Perspectives, Strategy. Process — Full transparency, one meeting per week. Start with a story about a member at each meeting. “If you know what to do, what would you do?” Help high-integrity leaders make good decisions for their company, family, and community. Hiring “must-haves” They believe in the mission They don’t think they’re better than others They listen They collaborate well Advice: Give back what you can to help others. Be generous. Learn. Get away from bad bosses. Be balanced. The power of being part of a peer accountability group – I’ve learned firsthand the impact this has on leaders through my Learning Leader Circles. The differences between leading, managing, and coaching, and why you must do all three… Leader – Set direction, make sense of the outside world Manager – Know the details Coach – Help you activate what you already know ]]> https://travelwinners.me/589-sam-reese-leadership-coaching-setting-big-goals-setting-the-tone-at-the-top-and-why-we-should-all-be-part-of-a-mastermind-group/feed/ 0 https://travelwinners.me/aiir-recognized-as-2022-inc-power-partner/ https://travelwinners.me/aiir-recognized-as-2022-inc-power-partner/#respond Wed, 14 Aug 2024 05:27:23 +0000 https://travelwinners.me/?p=72374

AIIR has been recognized as a Power Partner by Inc., an international recognition featuring companies that have best supported entrepreneurs and helped startups grow. In addition, the company was ranked for the third consecutive year, as one of the top 100 fastest-growing, privately-held companies in the Philadelphia area, coming in at #31 on the Philadelphia100® list.

Inc’s inaugural Power Partner Awards honored 252 B2B organizations across the globe that have proven track records in supporting entrepreneurs and startups. All 252 companies received top marks from clients for being instrumental in helping startup leaders navigate change. These B2B partners support entrepreneurs across various facets of the business, including coaching and development, which allows founders to focus on their core missions. 

While most coaching and leadership development providers promise better leaders, more effective teams, a more successful organization, and incredible ROI, AIIR has a 12-year record of producing measurable results for the world’s leading brands. AIIR’s NPS is well above industry benchmarks, and considered to be world-class.

94% of our clients rate our coaching as very good or excellent
78% of our clients said we exceeded or far exceeded their expectations
91% of our clients would recommend our services

Top 100 Fastest-Growing, Privately-Held Companies on the Philadelphia100®

Started in 1988 by The Entrepreneurs’ Forum of Greater Philadelphia and the Wharton SBDC, the Philadelphia100 has recognized some of the region’s finest companies. The integrity of their process and the resulting list make it one of the most sought-recognitions in the region.

“At AIIR, our mission is to help leaders navigate change and shape a better future, a skillset that is needed now more than ever,” said Kirschner. “We’re honored to be recognized as an Inc. Power Partner and to once again be part of the Philadelphia100 — and grateful to our team for their incredible hard work and dedication that got us here. Since day one, we have pushed the boundaries of the coaching and leadership development industries. Our inclusion on these lists is a testament to the outsized impact we create for our clients, our community, and the industry as a whole.”

These two honors are the latest in a string of awards recognizing AIIR’s meteoric growth. In August AIIR Consulting was included, for the fourth year in a row, on the 2022 Inc. 5000 list — a prestigious annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The Inc. 5000 list represents a unique look at the most successful companies in the American economy’s most dynamic segment — independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many household names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. AIIR ranked No. 2976.

My last few posts drew excerpts and scenarios from the fictional story of Pete Leonard in Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications @ Work. Pete’s story showed how he avoided, discouraged, and finally encouraged courageous conversations. These difficult discussions identify and address the problems that are reducing a team or organization’s effectiveness. This calls for strong leadership to both speak and up listen.

Many managers believe they have an “open door policy,” are approachable, and foster open discussion and debate. But often, they mistake silence and the lack of problems being raised as signs they don’t have big moose issues in their team or organization. Frequently, the manager’s assertive and domineering style is the moose.

An Exercise to Exorcise the Moose

This moose-hunting approach follows the process described in “How to Vision Your Ideal Team or Culture.” The goal is to address the biggest barriers to reaching the leadership team’s ideal state. Unless a leadership team is exceptionally open and extraordinary (in the top 10%) already (which means 90% aren’t), most team leaders don’t realize how their authority, style, or the group’s team dynamics stifle conversations about what’s really going on.

This process is designed for a neutral facilitator to use:

Each participant writes down up to three “moose” issues the leadership team needs to address if their vision of the ideal future is going to move from dreaming to implementation.
Only the facilitator sees these notes, shuffles them, and reads the notes to a few scribes from the group who summarize (some moose descriptions are quite detailed) and rewrite the issue on Post-It-Notes to protect anonymity/openly airing issues and put the focus on the message not the messenger.
The Post-It-Notes “moose” are clustered/grouped into themes and given titles through whole group discussion. Then, each cluster is numbered (can get as high as 12 moose)
Each participant hands in his or her secret ballot vote for the top moose by writing three cluster numbers on a piece of paper only seen by the facilitator.
Three or four moose will inevitably get most of the votes.
Sub-groups are then formed around each issue. Their task is to identify what they feel the core or root issue is, brainstorm possible solutions, and bring back their recommended actions to the larger group.

Time and again we see the power of this process to foster real — and courageous conversations — that surface issues and obstacles to be addressed.

Do-it-yourself variations include using anonymous tools like Survey Monkey, anonymous polls in virtual meeting platforms, or meeting software connecting phones/tablets/computers to presentation slides and displaying anonymous results for the group to see in slides.

On the Hunt: Pathways and Pitfalls to Reduce the Moose

In their Harvard Business Review article, “Can Your Employees Really Speak Freely?” James Detert and Ethan Burris identify “a fear of consequences for speaking up and a sense of futility” as the main barriers to open communication. Here are some ways to overcome those common team dysfunctions or moose inducing culture:

Potential ways to play with the Moose-on-the-Table approach:

Give everyone on your team a little toy stuffed Moose to put on the table when initiating courageous conversations.
Hold a Moose hunting retreat/meeting and give everyone Moose hunting T-shirts or vests.
As a meeting participant, you might frame an issue with, “I’d like to put a little Moose-on-the-Table…”
When leading a discussion, ask, “Is there a Moose-on-the-Table we need to talk about?” or “Am I smelling a moose around here?”

Brainstorm potential Moose issues by asking for ideas on the “dumbest things we do around here,” “biggest barriers to reaching our goals,” “major implementation issues we need to address,” “pet peeves,” “dumb rules and forms,” “things that drive you crazy,” or the like.

List each point. Cluster the similar points until you have 5 – 7 major groupings or clusters. Identify those things you or your team directly control, can influence, and don’t control at all. Prioritize the things you control and get ideas/volunteers/plans to address them. Do the same for things you can influence. Discuss how you can all accept and let go of the things you can’t do anything about.

Get a facilitator outside of your team to run focus groups, conduct confidential interviews, or do a survey of your team or organization to identify and prioritize Moose issues.
When you’ve made a mistake, admit it. Talk about what you’re going to do to correct it.
As leader, when you’re trying to build a team consensus or get the team’s input, hold back your opinion until you’ve heard from everyone.
Use 360 feedback to get unfiltered feedback from direct reports, peers, your boss, and other key internal or external partners or customers.
These can be three powerful feedback questions: What should I/we keep doing? What should I/we stop doing? What should I/we start doing? Ask these questions at meetings/retreats, after you’ve completed a performance review with a direct report, during operation reviews, informal chats about how things are going, breakfasts/lunches with team members, etc.
The worst thing you can do is ask for input to identify Moose issues and then not deal openly and effectively with them. You’re better off to not ask if you aren’t going to follow-through. Follow-up to see if team members feel you have done all you can to address it.

Do you have a moose problem? Take our short quiz to do some moose hunting. Do you have an open door and closed mind? How do you know? That’s the critical question. Many leaders suffer from optical delusion. They can’t see the moose because people aren’t speaking up, pushing back, or giving honest feedback.

Silence creates blissful ignorance…until big problems seem to pop out of nowhere — like a moose crashing through your car’s windshield as you’re driving through the fog.

Read our book, The Score That Matters https://amzn.to/3XxHi7p

Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com 

This episode is supported by Insight Global. Insight Global is a staffing company dedicated to empowering people. Please CLICK HERE for premier staffing and talent.

Notes:

Commonalities of excellent coaches: Not defensive Respond well to feedback Ability to learn “Leadership can’t be taught but it can be learned.” Coaching is not therapy, but it can be therapy-adjacent. It’s not telling people what to do and it’s not just asking questions. It’s a combination of all of them. There is ample research on the benefits of writing. It clarifies your thinking. The questions to ask someone who might need an executive coach: Why do you want a coach? Why now? What do you hope to get out of it? What do great leaders do? First, do no harm. Walk the talk. Be an embodiment of the culture. Have high standards Take risks Coach people up Train people “Coaching is accomplishment through others.” “Feedback is not a gift.” Feedback is data. Signal and noise. Signal – Important and good. Noise – Byproduct of someone’s distorted lens. “Praise, Criticism, Praise (PCP) is terrible.” Don’t give the compliment sandwich. It’s disingenuous. How leaders best overcome adversity – The most critical skill is “adaptive capacity…” It’s composed of two primary qualities: the ability to grasp context, and hardiness. Coaching – Asking evocative questions, ensuring the other person feels heard, and actively conveying empathy remain the foundations of coaching. Connect: Establish and renew the interpersonal connection, followed by an open-ended question. Reflect: Having elicited a response, reflect back the essence of the other person’s comments. Direct: Focus their attention on a particular aspect of their response that invites further exploration. Support and Challenge – A client once said, “It feels like you’re always in my corner, but you never hesitate to challenge me.” Master the Playbook, Throw it Away – Coaching involves a continuous and cyclical process of learning, unlearning, and relearning. Power Dynamics – The longer I coach, the more I appreciate and value the work of Jeff Pfeffer, a leading scholar on power. philosopher Ernest Becker: “If you are wrong about power, you don’t get a chance to be right about anything else.” “Meaningful coaching is always an emotionally intimate experience, no matter what’s being discussed. In part this is a function of the context: two people talking directly to each other with no distractions… Intimacy in a coaching relationship also results from a willingness to ‘make the private public’–to share with another person the thoughts and feelings that we usually keep to ourselves… And yet an essential factor that makes such intimacy possible is a clear set of boundaries defining the relationship, which creates an inevitable and necessary sense of distance…” ]]> https://travelwinners.me/592-ed-batista-how-to-give-useful-feedback-what-great-leaders-do-and-why-we-all-need-an-executive-coach/feed/ 0 https://travelwinners.me/aiir-consulting-expands-coaching-tech-stack-with-an-ai-tool-proven-to-increase-impact-of-executive-coaching/ https://travelwinners.me/aiir-consulting-expands-coaching-tech-stack-with-an-ai-tool-proven-to-increase-impact-of-executive-coaching/#respond Wed, 14 Aug 2024 05:23:12 +0000 https://travelwinners.me/?p=72366 Technology that enhances executive coaching

A premier, tech-enabled coaching and leadership development firm, AIIR Consulting has seen the change coaching can create for leaders and their organizations — more effective communication, improved strategic thinking, and enhanced performance. But change is hard. It requires leaders to work between sessions to adopt new skills, habits, and behaviors. And, with their demanding work and lives, it’s easy for leaders to forget.

“For the more than 12 years that we’ve been doing this, we’ve seen the incredible impact coaching can have. For some, it can be life changing,” said Megan Marshall, Head of Executive Coaching at AIIR. “But, in the critical moments between coaching sessions, leaders get busy. Many lose focus on their goals. That’s where Aiiron comes in.”

Aiiron combines artificial intelligence (AI) with principles of behavioral psychology to support leaders between coaching sessions. It can help leaders:

Reflect and integrate information from their coaching sessions
Reinforce new behaviors and apply new skills in real time
Stay motivated and focused on their goals

What does that mean for leaders and their organizations? An even greater impact from their coaching engagements.

Built by the leading expert in AI and coaching

As artificial intelligence continues to advance, countless companies have launched AI products with poor user experiences and limited effectiveness. 

AIIR, in contrast, is dedicated to evidence-based innovation. Last year, that dedication led the company to partner with Dr. Nicky Terblanche, the leading expert in the use of artificial intelligence in coaching.

In 2020, Dr. Terblanche developed a groundbreaking framework for the development of artificial intelligence coaching that adheres to international coaching standards, practices, and ethics. Then, he proved that an AI coaching assistant built on that framework could make leaders 31% more likely to reach their development goals.

Supercharging the “R” in the AIIR Method®

But, what good is reaching your development goals if that progress doesn’t stick? The AIIR Method (Assessment, Insight, Implementation, Reinforcement) is a proven, proprietary approach to creating lasting change for leaders, teams, and organizations. Leveraging our proven methodology, Aiiron bolsters reinforcement to help leaders create change that lasts beyond the coaching engagement.

The future of coaching technology

Aiiron is part of Coaching Zone®, the powerful coaching and leadership development platform that makes it easy for leaders and their coaches to communicate, set goals, and share information in a seamless, secure environment. Aiiron also operates on the world’s most ubiquitous and secure mobile messenger: WhatsApp. That means leaders can experience all of Aiiron’s benefits anytime, anywhere.

Together, these technologies enhance the unmatched experience and expertise of AIIR’s senior executive coaches and create unparalleled results for leaders and their organizations. 

“Since its inception, AIIR has stayed at the cutting edge of the coaching industry,” said Dr. Jonathan Kirschner, Founder and CEO of AIIR Consulting. “Now, with the launch of Aiiron, we are combining psychology, technology, and human expertise in a way that thrusts the coaching and leadership development industry into the future, and produces truly powerful results for our clients and their organizations.”

As I reset and rebalance with summer R & R (relaxation and rejuvenation), I am giving you some blog R & R (reusing and recycling). Many of this summer’s blogs are past favorites. May you use them for your own R & R (review and refocus). Hope these R helpful!

P.S. – What’s a pirate’s favorite letter? That’s right; rrrrr…

At a leadership conference years ago, I shared the stage with the CEO of a top-performing company known for its powerful combination of management discipline and people-focused leadership culture. He illustrated the defining role of vision, values, and purpose with a great personal example. He told us he called a friend and got this message; “Hi. Sorry I missed your call. This is not an answering machine; it’s a questioning machine. There are two important questions in life; Who are you? and What do you want? Please leave your answer at the tone.”

Talk of answering machines shows this example is a “few” years old! But those existential questions are timeless. Going way…back to my days co-founding the Achieve Group, we’ve used three key questions that have stood the test of time:

Where are we going (our picture of our preferred future or outcome)?
What do we believe in (our guiding values or principles)?
Why do we exist (our reason for being, mission, or purpose)?

These aren’t in any order. You can start and finish anywhere. Like a triple yin yang symbol, they blend and blur into each other. We’ve put them at the center of two core personal, team, and leadership effectiveness models anchoring many of my books and our development programs and services.

We call these three questions, Focus and Context. This is at the very core of our organizations and our lives. Focus and Context provide the ultimate focal point and meaning for us. What are our core values and beliefs? Where are you trying to go? What does success look like? What kind of team or organization are we trying to build? What kind of person are we becoming? How does our work align with our life’s mission or purpose?

The three Focus and Context questions are the counterbalance to Strategy and Direction at the heart of our culture development pathways model. They define the heart, soul, and spirit of our teams and organizations. This is the heart that drives the head of rational systems and processes to direct the hands of technology. These three questions are also the core of our “leadership wheel,” framing the timeless leadership principles we use for books and workshops on leading self and others.

Less effective managers often “do leadership” as if it were just another set of tools to be deployed (“I’ve done my vision thing”). But a team or organization’s Focus and Context aren’t techniques, statements, or approaches. They’re deeper than that. Focus and Context are about feelings, causes, and convictions. They go to the very DNA of our being. You can’t be dispassionate about passionate issues. Otherwise, while you do your “leadership thing,” people on your team and in your organization will do their “commitment thing.” So, nothing is energized.

I’ve been involved in too many “vernacular engineering” debates as management teams discuss whether the statement they’ve been crafting is a vision, mission, values, goals, and the like. Often these philosophical labeling debates are like trying to pick the fly specks out of the pepper. Unless you’re a lexicographer and your company is in the dictionary business, don’t worry about the precise definition of a vision, mission, values, or whatever you may be calling the words you’re using to define who you are and where you’re trying to go.

What matters is that you and your team have discussed, debated, and decided on the answers to these three questions. They are existential questions. They’re fundamental to leading yourself and others. This is the core of effective leadership. If you’re attempting to improve your team or organization culture, your answers to these basic questions are the first step toward your desired culture.

These questions are at the center of our lives. They are central to our choices, authenticity, passion and commitment, spirit and meaning, growth and development, and ability to energize and mobilize others.

In The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff writes:

How can you get very far,

If you don’t know Who You Are?

How can you do what you ought,

If you don’t know What You’ve Got?

And if you don’t know Which to Do

Of all the things in front of you,

Then what you’ll have when you are through

Is just a mess without a clue

All the best can come true

If you know What and Which and Who.

Dr. Jonathan Kirschner, CEO of AIIR Consulting, will speak Tuesday, October 3, at a joint event for the International Coach Federation (ICF) and Columbia Teachers College Columbia Coaching Certification Program, titled Demonstrating the Impact of Coaching in Organizations: Research and Case Examples from the Front Line.

Since the advent of executive coaching, coaches and their clients have struggled to measure outcomes beyond customer satisfaction. This event will delve into the evolution of the coaching landscape with three objectives:

Describing emerging trends and research that establish the rationale of integrating “measurement” as a critical success factor for coaching effectiveness, in and for, organizations.
Examining attributes and characteristics beyond ICF’s core competencies that factor into coaching excellence and translate to performance, and other outcomes, that client and organizations value.
Establishing personal commitments for building enhanced contracting and measurement capabilities within your professional coaching practice.

Measuring the Impact of Coaching at AIIR Consulting

Dr. Kirschner’s presentation will highlight AIIR Consulting’s innovative approach to executive coaching that is: (1) aligned with the business strategy; (2) grounded in business psychology; and (3) enabled by technology. He will also share how AIIR leverages its proprietary Coaching Zone® technology platform to track coaching engagements, measure results, and ethically share data with key stakeholders.

The event will be held Tuesday, October 3, 2023, from 6:00-9:00 PM ET, both virtually and at Millbank Chapel, Teachers College, Columbia University. Those interested in attending can find registration information here.