Another gem from my good friend Kenny Tranquille, who has been using Tungle to make it much easier to schedule meetings between multiple parties from different organisations.
He gave me a quick demonstration recently when we arranged to speak and today I signed up myself. I’ll be trying it out in the coming weeks and letting you know how I get on.
Today the number of connections I have on LinkedIn went up to 49 – and growing. I have now moved from responding to invitations to actively thinking about who I’d like to be connected with in this way.
I wonder what the number will be in a year’s time – and with what results. I make a note in my calendar to check this out in a year’s time and to report back.
Every now and then I realise that I need to change the labels I have given to a posting or postings.
Today, I take a look at the labels I have been giving a thread of postings in which I share the actions I am taking to optimise my online presence and realise the labelling needs to reflect this thread more accurately in order to be useful to my readers.
So, I choose my label – the title of this posting – and I review all the postings I have made in this thread. This is easy to do using “edit posts”. Now they all share this single, simple label.
I’ve taken another step today following my latest conversation with Kenny Tranquille, my friend and “e-mentor”. I’ve signed up to Twitterfeed and used this to link my blog to my shiny new Twitter account. This means that every time I post something to the blog, it will automatically go out on Twitter.
Oh! And I also discovered that my blog postings are appearing on my Plaxo account. How did that happen? I don’t know! What it does mean is that my blog postings are also showing up on Plaxo – another way to share what I’m doing. Great stuff!
I’ve also added a link (see left hand column) to my Twitter account and to Kenny’s website. So I’ve made it easy to for readers of my blog sign up to my Twitter account and also to find out about Kenny who, as well as being my friend and generously giving me his time to talk about how to grow my online presence, has businesses of his own – as a nutritionist and NLP coach.
Oh! And one last thing, Kenny showed me the links icon above so that I’ve agreed to create a link to his website every time I use his name on my blog. And of course, I’ll be using it to create other links as well. And that’s before I even think about the other homeworks Kenny gave me…
Every client we work with teaches us something about what we most enjoy in our coaching. When I started working with Eddie, I already knew how much I enjoy working with men and women in senior leadership roles – this has, after all, been my heartland for a number of years now. One thing that Eddie and clients like him have taught me is this: that I enjoy working in a deep and lasting coaching relationship with clients. Why? Because such work can be transformational for the client, bringing results which continue way after the coaching has finished.
Eddie is also one of the clients who has taught me that the line between a “corporate” and a “private” client is not always clear. Sometimes my work with corporate clients has focused on personal agendas whilst sometimes those clients who pay for their own coaching can bring an agenda which is entirely work-related and of great benefit to the business in which they work. And either way, my senior leadership clients are as likely to be private clients as they are to be sponsored by their organisations.
What does Eddie have to say about his experience of coaching?
I was already taking part in an in-depth leadership development programme when I started working in coaching partnership with Dorothy.
I’ve had some great results from coaching. I achieved all my early goals for coaching and I got the promotion I was looking for. More than this, I am much more secure in who I am and what I want – coaching, together with our leadership development programme, produced this result. I have greater self confidence and self belief and I know what I have that gives me my place in the company’s future. The big thing is that I no longer question my right to lead and I’m willing and comfortable to be the obvious point of authority.
What would I say about coaching? Coaching has provided a space in which to explore and it’s always about me: it’s about my issues and what I can do. You could say it’s about developing me and not about developing a specific skill set. I always get value from our sessions. I started coaching with some clear goals and, having met them I’m now using it to help with specific issues and challenges as well as defining my next goals.
What would I say about Dorothy as a coach? She always gives me space to dump stuff and then move forward. She’s very good at listening and asking questions – catching the meaning of words and offering challenging questions. I always come away from coaching with the background noise in my head reduced. Our sessions create focus for me, giving me a renewed sense of purpose and priority.
Would I recommend coaching? Yes, I would – particularly for people struggling to achieve their potential or who are unaware of their potential. It’s a mind-expanding experience and an opportunity to expand your horizons – to open up areas of thought you never realised were not there.
Eddie Maguire
Head of IT Delivery
Well! All sorts of resources are flying my way!
Today, Cathy Gemis, member of the Training Journal Daily Digest, offered a link to a useful website: http://www.networking-coach.com/. Apparently, there is a free webinar on how to really use LinkedIn on the site.
I don’t have time right now to view it but I will do. And perhaps it will be useful to you, too.
Last week I fielded a call from a colleague in the world of Nonviolent Communication. He let me know that I’d taken some actions that hadn’t met his needs and made some requests of me to support him in meeting his needs. So far, so good – this was what sometimes gets described as “classical” Nonviolent Communication.
There was something else, too. I sensed anger and I asked my colleague if he was feeling angry to which he replied that he was. I found it difficult to have a productive conversation – one that met both our needs and served to build and maintain trust – as long as my colleague was speaking from a place of anger with its implicit belief that I was responsible both for his angry feelings and for taking actions to meet his needs.
Marshall Rosenberg, the originator of Nonviolent Communication often teaches that some forms of expression are a “tragic expression of an unmet need” – tragic, because as strategies for meeting one’s needs go, they are highly likely to fail. As an alternative, Rosenberg invites his students to transform anger into a deeper understanding of their needs. So, when another’s action stimulates anger, you might choose to ask for help in transforming your anger or to do this work yourself. Having done that, you are in a strong position to share your needs in ways another person can hear. In this way, you are more likely to have a productive conversation.
My experience with my colleague raised an important question for me – one that I bump into from time to time: at what point does “not having learned yet” become a positive choice for which one is solely responsible? If I accept that we are all doing the best we know how at a given point in time and acting from a positive intention (no matter how effective or ineffective our strategy) my choice of response might be wholly different to the response I might choose if I take a different view – that the person concerned has the tools he or she needs to speak in ways which are supportive to us both and has chosen not to use them.
Looking forward, I’m wondering whether I might, in future, begin a conversation like this by asking for clarity: dear colleague, are you asking for me to support you as you seek to transform your anger and clarify your needs? Or are you – from a place of anger – wanting me to take responsibility for your feelings of anger and for taking some actions that might make you feel better? And having clarifed my colleague’s requests I might choose to say yes – or no.
This example is but one of many and it’s focused on those people who have studied what it takes to be effective (whether via a professional coaching training, Neurolinguistic Programming, Nonviolent Communication or some other training). This is before one even considers a further question: and what about those people who choose not to hear the feedback that might lead them to embark on a course of learning?
I wonder, what are your views?
Kenny*, my “e-mentor”, has had me signing up for various networking sites. I was already signed up to Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo and I’ve just said yes to my first invitation (you guessed it! From Kenny) to ecademy. I took my coaching profile to use as my profile on ecademy so I am quickly up and running.
As it happens, I mentioned my plans – to create a visible and accessible on-line presence using every possible means which will benefit me and everyone I know – to a close friend who shared that he, too, is seeking to create a more visible presence on LinkedIn. Were we LinkedIn? No – at least, not yet. I sent him an invitation after we spoke along with one to Kenny.
I am still learning about the benefits of all these sites and no doubt will be for some time. For now, though, I am simply thinking about those people I most value and appreciate and beginning to invite them to be connected via these sites.
*Yes, that’s Kenny Tranquille who, as well as being my e-mentor, is a nutritionist and coach. He has my vote every time!
Today I take a few moments to share a view of Executive Coaching which I often share with potential clients:
What is Executive Coaching?
Executive Coaching is, quite simply, coaching for Executives. The International Coach Federation or ICF (www.coachfederation.org) defines professional coaching as “an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses or organisations”.
At times, individual Executives seek out a Coach. At times, organisations actively encourage key Executives to work with an Executive Coach and may outline an agenda for coaching to clarify the benefits expected as a result of investing in coaching.
Most Executive Coaches work in a partnership with Executive Clients which is bound by a clear agreement (or ‘Coaching Alliance’) which outlines the agenda for coaching, how the Coach and Client will work together in pursuit of desired outcomes and what information will and won’t be shared outside the coaching partnership.
How do individuals benefit from Executive Coaching?
Executive Coaching is an investment in the immediate success and the sustainable, long-term development of the individual Executive, helping clients to deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life.
It’s not just that Executive Coaching helps the individual to do a better job: Executive Coaching helps the individual to clarify his or her direction and values, to build energy and motivation and to take powerful steps towards a compelling future.
How do organisations benefit from Executive Coaching?
Imagine a work force in which each and every individual is working to his or her full potential. By helping the individual Executive to tap into his or her larger potential, Executive Coaching can raise levels of performance in the organisation. Often, this brings about a knock-on effect as others in turn become more effective as a result of working with or for the individual Coaching Client.
In addition, by targeting groups of leaders Executive Coaching can help to build greater personal and leadership effectiveness across the whole organisation. This can lead to improved and sustainable results across the organisation.
For further information about coaching
There is a wealth of information available about Executive Coaching in books, magazines and on the internet. For information about key sources of information or for guidance on how to choose your coach please contact me, Dorothy Nesbit, directly on 0774 789 8450 or by e-mail at dorothy@learningforlifeconsulting.co.uk
That’s it! I’ve done it! I am now on Twitter as DorothyNesbit and I’ve posted my first update. You can find me at http://twitter.com/DorothyNesbit.
In time, I plan to link Twitter to my blog, Facebook etc. to make for easy updating. And in truth, I still have a great deal to learn about how to make the most of it.
For now, though, it’s one step at a time! I can speak with Kenny*, my friend, nutritionist and fellow coach – oh! and e-mentor! – tomorrow knowing that I’ve done my homework and signed up on Twitter.
*That’s Kenny Tranquille – look him up on google. I’m always delighted to point people in his direction.