Leadership Development happens in many ways...training, on the job learning, mentoring and increasingly, through a personalized style of learning called executive or leadership coaching. Coaching is a tool that helps leaders develop and hone their ability to learn. It is about meta-learning or learning about our own ability to learn.
Learning refers to the concerted activity that increases the capacity and willingness of individuals, teams, organizations, and communities to acquire and productively apply new knowledge and skills. The ability to learn increases our capacity as individuals to grow and mature and to adapt successfully to change. Learning empowers individuals and organizations to make wise choices about the world around them, to solve problems, and to innovate. It is this kind of learning that is a sustainable, lifelong, renewable process for people, for organizations, and for the communities they serve.
Coaching for leadership development focuses on the discipline of personal mastery. Peter Senge, renowned author, educator, and speaker on learning defines personal mastery as” ...continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience and of seeing reality objectively.” Coaching is a systematic, effective methodology to increase personal mastery, awareness, and performance in leaders. Coaching explicitly supports the learners to help them understand their own learning style and to observe and reflect on what they are learning. Coaching is a collaborative, results-oriented process that engages the learner in identifying their own learning gaps and in finding systematic solutions to address them.
People are primarily engaged in the process of making meaning of the world around them. This effort to understand or make sense of the world is extremely useful. It enables us to understand the past, make sense of the present and, to a degree, predict the future. As we mature, we adopt certain filters, or ways of seeing the world. These ways of making sense or making meaning are useful in some circumstances and potentially limiting in others. Coaching helps to highlight the ways in which we filter information and actively encourages us to incorporate new and diverse perspectives. Coaching helps a leader to consciously nurture meaningful experiences and as a result take meaningful action.
Learning about our own learning requires the active collaboration of both the coach and the leader. The coach’s role is to listen deeply, to encourage, to inquire and to empower leaders to reach their fullest level of capability. The leader’s role is to bring all of their experience and knowledge to the relationship, to be open, and to be willing to make change through deliberate and planned action. Coaching is a powerful tool for people who want to take their leadership to another level...
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Do we Need Leaders who Focus on Engagement rather then Vision setting?
In preparation for some upcoming work, I am revisiting my favorite sites for literature and other resources on facilitation and the art of conversation. This has led me through a number of sites and postings that discuss dialogue, conversation, engagement, and whole system processes as approaches to changing the conversation and the way that we make meaning so that we can be open to new possibilities for the future. Many of these articles reflect the belief that the intractable problems of today cannot be solved by the same frameworks that caused these problems in the first place.
In my journey, I happily stumbled upon a document by Peter Block - a well known organizational theorist. In this article (Civic Engagement and Conversation - http://www.peterblock.com/assets/Civic.pdf ) the author states that we need to "...shift our thinking of leadership. The dominant belief system is that the task of leadership is to set a vision, enroll others in it, and hold people accountable through measurements and reward. The shift is to believe that the task of leadership is to produce engagement. To engage groups of people in a way that creates accountability, which is to care for the well being of the whole, and commitment, which is to make and fulfill a promise without expectation of return."
It seems to me that this is a substantial change in how we think about leadership as our society/ culture today is not fond of personal accountability and commitment (we do like these concepts for others though). While the article presents a stirring perspective on engagement and provides many ideas on some tools for engaging, I am left wondering how this shift in viewing leadership would shift our perceptions of the core competencies for a leader who chooses to lead from the place of engagement. My thoughts are that listening (deep listening), being open to what unfolds through the conversations, personal accountability and commitment, deep curiosity, and a rare ability to stay open to what may emerge would be some of the competencies. In fact this seems to be a good fit with Theory U (Uncovering the Blind Spot of Leadership by C. Otto Scharmer) as he writes on the importance of a leaders ability to operate from the future possibility that emerges. It sounds generative and hopeful for those of us who are ready to shift and scary for anyone that has been mentored and is comfortable in an authoritative and command style of leadership.
I am curious to hear from others as they reflect on their assumptions, practices and hopes for their own leadership and the leadership of others.
In my journey, I happily stumbled upon a document by Peter Block - a well known organizational theorist. In this article (Civic Engagement and Conversation - http://www.peterblock.com/assets/Civic.pdf ) the author states that we need to "...shift our thinking of leadership. The dominant belief system is that the task of leadership is to set a vision, enroll others in it, and hold people accountable through measurements and reward. The shift is to believe that the task of leadership is to produce engagement. To engage groups of people in a way that creates accountability, which is to care for the well being of the whole, and commitment, which is to make and fulfill a promise without expectation of return."
It seems to me that this is a substantial change in how we think about leadership as our society/ culture today is not fond of personal accountability and commitment (we do like these concepts for others though). While the article presents a stirring perspective on engagement and provides many ideas on some tools for engaging, I am left wondering how this shift in viewing leadership would shift our perceptions of the core competencies for a leader who chooses to lead from the place of engagement. My thoughts are that listening (deep listening), being open to what unfolds through the conversations, personal accountability and commitment, deep curiosity, and a rare ability to stay open to what may emerge would be some of the competencies. In fact this seems to be a good fit with Theory U (Uncovering the Blind Spot of Leadership by C. Otto Scharmer) as he writes on the importance of a leaders ability to operate from the future possibility that emerges. It sounds generative and hopeful for those of us who are ready to shift and scary for anyone that has been mentored and is comfortable in an authoritative and command style of leadership.
I am curious to hear from others as they reflect on their assumptions, practices and hopes for their own leadership and the leadership of others.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Complex Challenges and the need to Transform our Thinking
As I read different materials for work that I am engaged in, I am often struck by how the different ideas complement one another. A friend of mine recently sent me some material from a book (Community Conversations by Paul Born). In an introductory paragraph, the author names a challenge: the issues facing communities and those at risk are complex - and yet the system yields simplistic solutions. In a textbook for executive coaches ( Ed. Fitzgerald and Garvey Berger, 2002 Executive Coaching Practices & Perspectives) an overview is given of Robert Kegan's adult development model and summarizes its essence as follows: "Kegan distinguishes between informational learning, which is new knowledge added to the current from of one's mind, and transformational learning, or learning that changes the very form of one's mind, making it more spacious, more complex, and more able to deal with multiple demands and with uncertainty...transformation occurs when we develop the ability to step back and reflect on something that used to be hidden or taken for granted and make decision about it....transformative learning happens when someone changes "not just they way he behaves, not just the way he feels, but the way he knows - not just what he knows but the way he knows". "
My conclusion is that transformational learning will prepare our minds for the complex challenges we are facing. To address the complex challenges that exist in our world, in our communities, and in our organizations, I need to be open to transformative learning experiences. The question then becomes how do each of us do this - find and engage in transformative learning experiences. The imperative certainly seems to be present!
My conclusion is that transformational learning will prepare our minds for the complex challenges we are facing. To address the complex challenges that exist in our world, in our communities, and in our organizations, I need to be open to transformative learning experiences. The question then becomes how do each of us do this - find and engage in transformative learning experiences. The imperative certainly seems to be present!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Employee Engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility
The following is an excerpt from this weekend's Globe and Mail (October 31, 2009, The business section, page B18).
...More than half of Canadians would be willing to accept a pay cut or a lesser job title in order to work for an organization with a sound corporate reputation a poll by staffing company Kelly Services has found. A company’s ethical behavior was cited as an important factor in deciding where to work by 97% of the 7,000 surveyed (!), with 53% saying they would take a pay cut to work for an employer with a reputation for caring about employees and the community. And 91% per cent said they would consider an employer’s efforts to reduce global warming when choosing a career. The percentages were nearly identical in all age groups. The findings indicate that “employees take pride not only in what they do while at work but in what they do while at work, but in what their organization stands for and how it is perceived by the entire community”, says Kelly vice-president and Canadian managing director Karin French.
It appears to be increasingly critical for an organization to examine it's business practices and the alignment with corporate social responsibility in order to be attractive to employees. Success in this area, we believe, is linked to the development of the organizations leaders.
What is your experience - does your organization retain you because of their corporate social responsiblity?
...More than half of Canadians would be willing to accept a pay cut or a lesser job title in order to work for an organization with a sound corporate reputation a poll by staffing company Kelly Services has found. A company’s ethical behavior was cited as an important factor in deciding where to work by 97% of the 7,000 surveyed (!), with 53% saying they would take a pay cut to work for an employer with a reputation for caring about employees and the community. And 91% per cent said they would consider an employer’s efforts to reduce global warming when choosing a career. The percentages were nearly identical in all age groups. The findings indicate that “employees take pride not only in what they do while at work but in what they do while at work, but in what their organization stands for and how it is perceived by the entire community”, says Kelly vice-president and Canadian managing director Karin French.
It appears to be increasingly critical for an organization to examine it's business practices and the alignment with corporate social responsibility in order to be attractive to employees. Success in this area, we believe, is linked to the development of the organizations leaders.
What is your experience - does your organization retain you because of their corporate social responsiblity?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Leadership and a Thankful Attitude
A young friend of mine recently shared with me his perspective on thankfulness. This young man is Mexican and he lives in a small community in the Northern Baja. His life is quite different from the typical North American young adult - and by typical North American young adult I am thinking of individuals who enjoyed fairly stable childhoods, attended school and have opportunity to attend post secondary, live within their known family unit, and can hold reasonable expectations that they will find a job and enjoy most of what North American life has to offer. In Mexico life is not so certain. There is wide disparity between those with wealth and those who are poor, jobs are far and few between, and access to post secondary is very limited for poorer families. Of the Mexican families that I know, the whole family makes sacrifices so that one child can attend secondary and post secondary education. So what does a young Mexican man have to be thankful for? At the end of each day he is thankful for his friends and that the most basic of his needs were met - he has a place to sleep and someone in his circle of friends has ensured that he had a meal to enjoy - and he is truly thankful. On a really good day someone may have had some work for him to do.
As he shared his sense of thankfulness with me I started to reflect on my own sense of thankfulness and how that is expressed in my leadership. As I lead do I feel a sense of entitlement, a taking for granted that the agenda I set will get done. Do I take the time to be thankful for each individuals that I get to work with, and for the meaningful work I get to be a part of. How would being thankful change how I lead? Beyond saying thanks when work gets down, do I convey to those around me an appreciation of how we are working together, of the quality of our relationships, of their importance to me, to the team and to the organization. How would your leadership change if everything you did was through and attitude of thanks?
As he shared his sense of thankfulness with me I started to reflect on my own sense of thankfulness and how that is expressed in my leadership. As I lead do I feel a sense of entitlement, a taking for granted that the agenda I set will get done. Do I take the time to be thankful for each individuals that I get to work with, and for the meaningful work I get to be a part of. How would being thankful change how I lead? Beyond saying thanks when work gets down, do I convey to those around me an appreciation of how we are working together, of the quality of our relationships, of their importance to me, to the team and to the organization. How would your leadership change if everything you did was through and attitude of thanks?
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Socially Responsible Leadership Experience - Nebaj Guat.
Over the past couple of years, we have been working on a concept that we think is pretty powerful. Our core concept is about connecting people and organizations who have a desire to make a difference in their world with a cross cultural experience that can galvanize them towards action. Sometimes, I think, each of us are aware that we want to do `something’ to make a difference, however we are not sure what the first step towards that `something’ might be. From my own experience of taking groups to Mexico to serve– I have experienced personally and have had the privilege of seeing others be changed and motivated to connect differently with the world.
We are currently in the process of organizing a fall residency to Nebaj Guatemala. We are really excited about this residency as it is our first opportunity to work with a partner organization called Social Entrepreneur Corps - a group that is doing some amazing development work in Guatemala and Ecuador.
While our website and materials speak about leadership and organizational social responsibility – The Acacia Group Experience is really about transformative personal learning and development as we would suggest that organizations are transformed when their leaders are transformed. We are limiting the group size to 12 and supporting them with 2 certified executive coaches. This experience is for individuals and organizations who want to both be different and lead differently in the world they are seeing. We will support each learner through coaching prior to leaving, throughout the experience, as well as upon your return.
Take a look at our information, check out our website, and give us some feedback (especially if you have questions about what we do). And if I can be bold, could I ask you to share this with people who you know and who may be interested in this experience OR just tell your friends about our great concept –
We are currently in the process of organizing a fall residency to Nebaj Guatemala. We are really excited about this residency as it is our first opportunity to work with a partner organization called Social Entrepreneur Corps - a group that is doing some amazing development work in Guatemala and Ecuador.
While our website and materials speak about leadership and organizational social responsibility – The Acacia Group Experience is really about transformative personal learning and development as we would suggest that organizations are transformed when their leaders are transformed. We are limiting the group size to 12 and supporting them with 2 certified executive coaches. This experience is for individuals and organizations who want to both be different and lead differently in the world they are seeing. We will support each learner through coaching prior to leaving, throughout the experience, as well as upon your return.
Take a look at our information, check out our website, and give us some feedback (especially if you have questions about what we do). And if I can be bold, could I ask you to share this with people who you know and who may be interested in this experience OR just tell your friends about our great concept –
Monday, August 24, 2009
Personal - Organizational Dissonance
Regardless of our role in an organization, I suspect that just about everyone has experienced times when in their own personal life journey they are confronted with the realization that they don’t like who they have `to be’ in order to be successful in their current organization.
This week I found myself in a number of conversations in which there was a recurring theme - the individuals were asking `how do I find an organization that is aligned with my values, where I can engage in work that is meaningful to me and is personally satisfying, and where I can make a difference?’ In each case the individual was well educated and highly skilled in their chosen profession. They wanted to do more than practice their skills, they wanted to make a difference and were frustrated by the systems in which they found themselves working. They were experiencing organizational - personal dissonance.
I have been in that place of dissonance and for me the ultimate outcome was that I left the organization – preferring to give up the security of organizational life for consulting and contract work where I could work with people I enjoyed, doing work that I was passionate about, and doing work in a way that was aligned with my values.
Organizations today cannot afford to lose employees who want to bring more than just their technical competencies to the workplace. People will join an organization that allows them to use their technical skills, but they will leave organizations that do not allow them to engage their areas of passionate interest – including their emotional, relational, and spiritual passions. How many organizations do you know that view their people as `talent to be managed’ or as `discrete skill sets’ to be plugged into an organizational need rather than as whole and integrated individual with hopes, dreams and needs for making a difference.
In my conversations this week I heard expressed both passion and frustration. There was an understanding of the need for their organization to make money and to balance their budgets – but there was a sense that their organizations were falling short of their responsibility to make positive contributions to their communities and the clients that they served – and that making money and balancing budgets did not have to be at odds with the social responsibility of the organization to people and communities.
I don’t believe that there is a perfect organization out there – all organizations are challenged to balance the often competing agendas required to be a sustainable organization. That many organizations have remained focused on the financial bottom line to the neglect of engaging the creativity and passions of their employees’ is a reality. However as organizations seek to hold a competitive niche in the marketplace and retain highly skilled staff, engaging staff and fostering creative and innovative thinking is the organizational leadership challenge of the day. Creating a workplace that values the passions of staff will require leadership that appreciates diversity in perspectives, can be inclusive of all that individuals bring to the workplace (and not just their technical skills), can leverage differences to foster creative solutions to organizational and societal problems, and thus improve organizational effectiveness.
As leaders, how are we challenging and developing our own leadership to lead from a place of valuing diversity, leveraging differences, and practicing inclusivity. Do I as a leader not also have a responsibility to examine my leadership paradigm and decide whether or not I need to shift my view of leadership as being centered in positional authority, hierarchy, and control and move towards one that values interconnectedness, creativity, and wholeness? Can I choose to lead so that my organization becomes the organization that I want to be a part of?
At The Acacia Group we believe passionately that a new leadership model and paradigm is needed and that the shift requires a transformation of leaders before an organizational transformation can occur. We have developed and offer socially responsible leadership residencies through which individuals have opportunities for transformative learning – preparing them to live and lead as socially responsible leaders in their community and their organizations.Check out our website for upcoming residences at www.theacaciagroup.ca , sign up for our blogs at http://theacaciagroup.blogspot.com/ and join us as we twitter at http://twitter.com/theacaciagroup
This week I found myself in a number of conversations in which there was a recurring theme - the individuals were asking `how do I find an organization that is aligned with my values, where I can engage in work that is meaningful to me and is personally satisfying, and where I can make a difference?’ In each case the individual was well educated and highly skilled in their chosen profession. They wanted to do more than practice their skills, they wanted to make a difference and were frustrated by the systems in which they found themselves working. They were experiencing organizational - personal dissonance.
I have been in that place of dissonance and for me the ultimate outcome was that I left the organization – preferring to give up the security of organizational life for consulting and contract work where I could work with people I enjoyed, doing work that I was passionate about, and doing work in a way that was aligned with my values.
Organizations today cannot afford to lose employees who want to bring more than just their technical competencies to the workplace. People will join an organization that allows them to use their technical skills, but they will leave organizations that do not allow them to engage their areas of passionate interest – including their emotional, relational, and spiritual passions. How many organizations do you know that view their people as `talent to be managed’ or as `discrete skill sets’ to be plugged into an organizational need rather than as whole and integrated individual with hopes, dreams and needs for making a difference.
In my conversations this week I heard expressed both passion and frustration. There was an understanding of the need for their organization to make money and to balance their budgets – but there was a sense that their organizations were falling short of their responsibility to make positive contributions to their communities and the clients that they served – and that making money and balancing budgets did not have to be at odds with the social responsibility of the organization to people and communities.
I don’t believe that there is a perfect organization out there – all organizations are challenged to balance the often competing agendas required to be a sustainable organization. That many organizations have remained focused on the financial bottom line to the neglect of engaging the creativity and passions of their employees’ is a reality. However as organizations seek to hold a competitive niche in the marketplace and retain highly skilled staff, engaging staff and fostering creative and innovative thinking is the organizational leadership challenge of the day. Creating a workplace that values the passions of staff will require leadership that appreciates diversity in perspectives, can be inclusive of all that individuals bring to the workplace (and not just their technical skills), can leverage differences to foster creative solutions to organizational and societal problems, and thus improve organizational effectiveness.
As leaders, how are we challenging and developing our own leadership to lead from a place of valuing diversity, leveraging differences, and practicing inclusivity. Do I as a leader not also have a responsibility to examine my leadership paradigm and decide whether or not I need to shift my view of leadership as being centered in positional authority, hierarchy, and control and move towards one that values interconnectedness, creativity, and wholeness? Can I choose to lead so that my organization becomes the organization that I want to be a part of?
At The Acacia Group we believe passionately that a new leadership model and paradigm is needed and that the shift requires a transformation of leaders before an organizational transformation can occur. We have developed and offer socially responsible leadership residencies through which individuals have opportunities for transformative learning – preparing them to live and lead as socially responsible leaders in their community and their organizations.Check out our website for upcoming residences at www.theacaciagroup.ca , sign up for our blogs at http://theacaciagroup.blogspot.com/ and join us as we twitter at http://twitter.com/theacaciagroup
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Are our consumer choices affected by a corporations business practices?
I love shopping at IKEA. I like wandering through their marketplace and picking up little items that I don't really need but that are so inexpensive I find myself thinking `oh why not!' In reflection, I realize that because I like the experience so much, I have not paused to think critically about how IKEA is able to deliver such a wide variety of items at such low prices. Having read an article in last weekends Globe and Mail titled `just don't ask why it is so cheap', the writer identifies a number of environmental and business practices by IKEA that are not aligned with my personal values - so it appears that someone else is paying a price for my cheap IKEA things.
In reading the Globe article, I was confronted with some questions. Is it sufficient for organizations today to have the appearance of being good corporate citizens, thus soothing my conscience, or are we as consumers prepared to become more discerning and willing to change our shopping practices when we learn that a corporation may not be act as a good corporate citizen? Are there enough organizations that are committed to being good corporate citizens and are they willing to challenge their business practices if there is a cost to the bottomline in the short term? How can an organization change to act in a way that is aligned with their stated values and the values of many consumers today- is this in essence a leadership challenge?
The Acacia Group's mission is
In reading the Globe article, I was confronted with some questions. Is it sufficient for organizations today to have the appearance of being good corporate citizens, thus soothing my conscience, or are we as consumers prepared to become more discerning and willing to change our shopping practices when we learn that a corporation may not be act as a good corporate citizen? Are there enough organizations that are committed to being good corporate citizens and are they willing to challenge their business practices if there is a cost to the bottomline in the short term? How can an organization change to act in a way that is aligned with their stated values and the values of many consumers today- is this in essence a leadership challenge?
The Acacia Group's mission is
`to offer transformative and unique experiences in the world of leadership andWe believe that it is a leadership challenge for most organizations - transformed leaders create transformed organizations. See our website for more information http://www.theacaciagroup.ca/.
executive coaching, for those organizations seeking to contribute to corporate
citizenship.'
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