Category Archives: Developing as a leader

Emotional freedom – stepping gingerly towards a new approach

Alternative approaches, Coaching, Developing as a leader, Emotional Intelligence, Your personal and professional well-being, , , ,

My professional training as a coach, as well as giving me an excellent underpin for my work with my Executive Coaching clients, opened up a whole new world for me in terms of alternative approaches. It’s as if all paths are leading to some emotional and cognitive Rome – from Emotional Intelligence in the field of leadership development, through Neuro-Linguistic Programming in the field of personal and professional effectiveness to… the list is endless.

My friend Alex has been studying something called Emotional Freedom Technique (or EFT) and recently offered me a session. His text reached me whilst I was in Dubai and I have taken a few days to engage with this possibility. This evening I google EFT and find Gary Craig’s website (http://www.emofree.com/) with its introductory video (http://www.emofree.com/splash/video_popup.asp). I have said yes to a session with Alex and I am thinking about what to bring to the session to work on.

I am struck by the range of issues mentioned in the video including a number of health issues – both common and uncommon. In common with many other “alternative” approaches, the video makes a link between our emotional and our physical health. The idea that our emotional landscape plays a role in our physical health can sit uncomfortably with some, even whilst offering great hope to others.

I am also curious about a particular moment in the video when the speaker talks about the effect of using EFT on the blood. Having recently had my blood tested to check the results that are accruing from making changes in my diet, I recognise the differences between healthy and unhealthy blood.

I drop Alex a line with some possible dates to meet. I am curious. And I am definitely up for experiencing this new approach.

Ramadan kareem

Coaching, Developing as a leader, , ,

I am quiet this evening, thoughtful. There have been pennies dropping for me throughout the day.

The time of meeting a potential coaching client, whether an individual or an organisation, is a blessed time for me, knowing as I do how much difference coaching can make both to individuals and to the organisations they work in.

As the day proceeds I get to meet some of the people I may – or may not – work with in coaching partnership. It is a time of exploration. A time of getting to know each other. A time of decision. For my part, it’s important to have some sense, ahead of time, that the investment my client proposes to make in my contribution will indeed add value. I am ready to walk away if my sense is that it will not. It is also an important time for my clients – for the people I meet and for the organisation for which they work. I want to support the organisation and its most senior leaders in moving forward. Still, I do not want for any member of the team that he (or she) feel any sense of obligation to “sign up”.

Sitting waiting for my first appointment, something I knew ahead of time lands with a more visceral force: that if I agree to work with this organisation, I may be signing up to regular visits to the UAE and for some time. The pennies continue to drop throughout the day as I make meaning of my experiences: that I am already supportive of the organisation’s aspirations for change, that I am already committed to the individual members of the senior leadership team, that to engage with this diverse group of leaders is to reach out beyond questions of culture and ethnicity and to engage with each and every member of the team, that to contribute in this way has meaning for me which includes but also goes way beyond the success of the organisation.

Walking at dusk I hear the call to prayer. Every fibre in my body sings in response. Everything is right with the world. As I sit at dinner the excitement of my day gives way to a deep, deep sense of peace. Ramadan kareem.

Senior Leadership Teams: what it takes to make them great

Coaching, Developing as a leader, , ,

Tomorrow, I meet my clients here in Dubai. Our focus will be on Executive Coaching as a support to the development of the organisation’s Senior Leadership Team.

Synchronicity is a wonderful thing. Over morning coffee with my valued colleague Patricia Marshall, I mention this forthcoming trip and she offers me a copy of the recently published Senior Leadership Teams: What it takes to make them great. I have been taking the opportunity to read this book, with its veritable roll-call of authers (Ruth Wageman, Debra A. Nunes, James A. Burruss and J. Richard Hackman) by way of preparation.

Based on their research into leadership teams in a wide variety of organisations, the authors lay out six conditions which differentiate outstanding teams at Senior Leadership level. They describe the first three as essential and the second three as enablers. On the surface, the conditions have a whiff of cliche: don’t we all know that the best Senior Leadership Teams have a compelling purpose and direction? And isn’t it axiomatic that you have to have the right people with the right capabilities for the team to succeed? Notwithstanding the authors explore their research with a degree of precision which adds great depth and illustrate it with many examples. It helps, too, that their research is based on work with a list of client organisations that many coaches, consultants and advisers could only admire – maybe even envy.

In my role as Executive Coach, I find good news and bad. Team coaching for the Senior Leadership Team is highlighted as one of the six conditions, an enabler. The authors tell their CEO readers, “Do not skimp on coaching”. Still, coaching alone cannot make up for the absence of other conditions (though it may help the team’s leader to identify and address their absence). What’s more, the authors highlight a surprising finding: that teams do not improve markedly even if all their members receive individual coaching to develop their personal capabilities. I find these pointers thought-provoking and helpful ahead of a meeting to explore my client’s expectations of coaching.

And what would I say to the CEO, pondering whether or not to read this book? If you are sleeping soundly at night in the full knowledge that your Senior Leadership Team is delivering way beyond your expectations you may find better ways to use your time. If, however, you have any sense at all that the team of which you are leader has more to give, if indeed you are tearing your hair out as you wonder why such a talented group of people behave like children in the board room, this book is an invaluable read. Its systematic exploration of its territory offers a way to diagnose the issues you face as well as guidance on how to address them.

Please let me know how you get on in turning your team from good, bad or indifferent to great. Truly great.

Getting up early for school

About Dorothy, Developing as a leader, ,
“The Teaching Awards provides a unique opportunity
for us to celebrate those who, tirelessly and often selflessly, dedicate their lives to securing a future for the next generation”
Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE

5 a.m. is not my favourite time in the morning.

My alarm goes off at 5 a.m. this morning. Perhaps I should say alarms: I have set my mobile phone and, at the same time, Marvin Gaye springs into action. I text Alan (“wakey, wakey”) and then get up to shower and get ready.

Today I take off my hat as business woman and executive coach and put on my hat as judge on behalf of the Teaching Awards. The Teaching Awards provide an opportunity for anyone who chooses – parents, pupils, colleagues and so on – to say thank you to a favourite teacher.

Already, our judging colleagues have been busy visiting schools around the country to identify the finalists at regional level. As judges at national level we have the – almost impossible – task of identifying the “best of the best” in our category, the The Royal Air Force Award for Headteacher of the Year in a Secondary School. Today we make our first visit to one of our shortlisted schools. We meet a variety of children, parents, governors and staff who all share their special stories and celebrate their headteacher.

As a visitor to schools I am often struck by the simple vision, passionately held, that headteachers have: to do what’s right for the children in their care. The headteacher we meet today is no exception.

I am moved when she talks of her own reasons for feeling so passionate about the children in her school.

Emotionally intelligent leadership: it’s all very well in theory…

Developing as a leader, Emotional Intelligence, ,

On Mondays I am almost invariably in my office with a schedule of coaching calls and other meetings. Today is no exception.

I start the day with a call with my colleague Sandra Morson, with whom I am planning a book. We both work one to one with men and women in leadership roles, helping them to develop the capabilities which, together, are increasingly labelled “emotional intelligence” or “leadership competencies”. Although there is plenty of published research about what makes for a successful leader, it isn’t so easy to know how to develop as an emotionally intelligent leader.

Collaborating in writing a book is a way of sharing our experiences with a wider audience than we can possibly reach one to one. Having mapped out the structure and content of the book we are starting to make contact with potential publishers. This morning we start planning a proposal which we aim to submit to a publisher with whom we are already in contact.

As I put the phone down at the end of our call I notice the excitement I feel about this project. I think of the men and women who will find this book an invaluable resource as they prepare for leadership or as they address the challenges that face them in their current leadership role. And I think of the joy I experience: in collaborating with Sandra, in writing, in finding out how to make something happen that I have never done before – as well as in reaching and supporting this much wider audience.

Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates and my father

Developing as a leader,

London is papered with posters this week to announce today’s concert to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday. A host of musicians are preparing to perform in honour of the old man of South Africa in London’s Hyde Park.

Reading the posters evokes memories of my father, who was 95 when he died a little under two years ago. I think of the span of both men’s lives, including Mandela’s time – 27 years! – in jail. His willingness to face imprisonment in pursuit of equality for black people marks him out, as does his willingness on leaving jail to “get stuck in” to the task of creating a South Africa, post apartheid, that was worth fighting for.

I also think of the loss of Mandela’s son, Makgatho, to AIDS in January 2005. For my father, one of the greatest challenges of old age was the death of loved ones, though never – thankfully -a son. Thinking of Makgatho’s death I think of Bill Gates, retiring this week from the fulltime chairmanship of Microsoft to dedicate more time to the Bill Gates Foundation. Gates’ commitment through the work of the Foundation to the health of some of the most disadvantaged peoples of the world touches me.

At the end of a busy day, I take a moment to sit with all these thoughts.

Coaching for the top team

Coaching, Developing as a leader, ,

I have had early conversations in recent weeks with clients in two very different organisations. Both have indicated that they want to explore the use of executive coaching for their most senior leaders.

So, it made sense to me to focus the main article in my quarterly newsletter on top team interventions. What differentiates the most successful from those that are seen as a poor return on investment? And where does coaching fit in? In recent days, I have been sketching the outlines of the article and today I get my first chance to begin the process of writing it.

At 15:37 I decide it’s time for a distraction and choose to put aside writing in favour of… Mmm… maybe there’s a better way of taking a break.