Executive Coaching Associates

We get knocked down? We should get up again Going on the defensive can look like a safe bet. Here’s why you shouldn’t. When times get tough, it can be tempting to go on the defensive and curl up against the world - just like the pangolin. That little personal bubble can feel so warm and safe. But not only does it often fail to protect us, it can make us an easier target - after all, pangolins are among the most hunted and endangered animals in the world. In fact, their habit of curling into a ball when threatened actually makes them easier to catch. To get beyond survival, we need to overcome the instinct to turn in on ourselves. We need to find a way to stand up again. Otherwise, the market, and the competition, will simply ride right over us. Resisting our instinct takes focused effort. Working with someone outside our bubble - such as a coach - can help us do things differently. But the key decision, to persevere, is ours to make. So, if we don’t want our business to make it on to the endangered species list, maybe let's be less pangolin. Meanwhile, if you go to wwf.org.uk, you can help out some real pangolins! #strategy #coaching Image: wp5484121 tsr70 on wallpapercave.com

Think like a disruptor. Just because 'it's always been done like this' doesn't mean it's the best way. ...

Nothing to be sure of… except everything must change If you think you can successfully scale up just by doing more, buy a hard hat, you're probably going to need it. Whether you think scaling up is about achieving efficiency or net growth, it is never about just doing more of what you've done. Scaling up will drive change and that means it's about: ·     Doing different things and ·     Doing things differently. That means that scaling up will make your business work differently too. Changing the business will mean that your business will need new competences, new processes and a different culture (so your people will need to think and act differently too). If your business isn't ready for change, then you risk more confusion, more conflict and more lost business. So, when you're ready to scale up, yes look at your finances, look at your market and look at your supply chain. But also take a good, hard look at how your business will adapt its operations, its culture, its activity in the market in order to ensure that your scale-up dream is an opportunity, not an ending. #leadership #scale-up #strategy #coaching Image: pierre-bamin-WBCefg9hYo4-unsplash

Storytelling has the ability to captivate and engage in a way that is incredibly powerful- definitely a core business skill!

To hear some wondrous stories... The world of work needs more storytelling. Stories form a fundamental part of the human makeup. We love them. We need them. Yet we still tend to think of them as an entertainment for children, or our leisure time. Here's the thing, a good story is compelling, unifying, motivating and inspiring. The worlds Homer created for us are over 3000 years old, yet are still known to many of us, even if disguised in a modern TV or film setting. Influencing people for over 3000 years? That’s a real power. And the ability to do that makes storytelling a critical tool in developing vision, strategy and community. In other words, the ability to develop and tell stories is actually a core business skill. And we should be using stories in our leadership, our management and our business strategy. So are you making time for story time in your team or organisation? #leadership #strategy #coaching Image by brooke-lark-ZOFyElHZIlM-unsplash

Try to see it my/your/their/our way Different perspectives really do add value, if we let them. We very rarely see things as they are. We are continually interpreting in the light of our experience - both good and bad. What we often miss is that we all do that. So when a group, in particular a team, comes together to talk about the ‘challenge/opportunity’ which they are to address, we tend not to see that, at this point, there are at least as many ‘challenges’ as there are people in the room. If we don't bring these differences in perspective to light, we're storing up risk, which often surfaces at the most unhelpful moments. For any forming team, early detailed exploration of the team’s individual takes on the challenge ahead can take time. Tempting therefore to ‘come back to that later’ (and we know when that means). But that bit of effort upfront can highlight: ·     Otherwise unseen risks and opportunities ·     Common issues and perspectives that other stakeholders will have ·     Language that helps or confuses discussion (especially different uses of technical terms) ·     Work to be done on strategy, so that the whole team is working to a single, coherent and consistent script. Getting ahead of all that risk seems like a really smart move. #teams #coaching #leadership Image: alonso-reyes-MK99KzXoHgk-unsplash

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed set to go away Ideas need action and persistence to become reality. If you were young in the early 1970s, life seemed pretty cool. The music was great. The summers were hot (in the days when that was a good thing). And we hadn't yet realised just how bad the fashion was. We didn't really understand why the adults were being so serious. We didn't really understand what was going on with blackouts, power cuts, industrial (in)action or the oil crises. Serious faces on the telly reassured us that all would be well. There was even a programme – Tomorrow’s World - to show us how the white heat of technology would solve our problems. So, here we are 50 years later. After all that focused, strategic leadership, surely all those challenges of our economic independence, recovery, sustainability and progress have all been solved … ah. Strategic transformation turns out to be harder to conceive, to communicate and to deliver than we tend to imagine. It’s easy to mock from the sidelines. But big transformation doesn’t happen when most of us sit back just cheering or booing. Real, sustainable transformation only happens when we all get involved in understanding and responding constructively to the challenges we face. Who’s delivering your strategic transformation – a beleaguered few, or all your stakeholders? #strategy #leadership #coaching image: stone-2127669_1280 schaferle on pixabay

Turn and face the strange? More often than not, change resistance is an opportunity rather than a threat – if we manage it well. Change is by its nature disruptive, so it really shouldn't surprise anyone that with change comes resistance. But we tend to dismiss resistance as mere opposition, something to be overcome at all costs. Often, however, resistance is more an indication of people struggling with: ·     Uncertainty ·     Discomfort (after all they've been disrupted) or ·     Fear - sometimes unjustified, sometimes based on prior bad experience. If we respond to resistance simply by ‘shutting down the opposition’, the lesson stakeholders take away is that they are right to be concerned; and that they are therefore right to resist. The battle over change will escalate. If, however, we acknowledge and explore resistance – which can mean simply listening to stakeholders’ concerns -  doubt may turn into understanding and acceptance. Even better, if we constructively address stakeholders’ concerns, we can often find new allies and even identify better options for progress. By the way, these concerns don't just affect external stakeholders, they are also common within change teams. Does your team understand and embrace its own resistance? #coaching #changemanagement #strategy Image by: dominik-vanyi-5Fxuo7x-eyg-unsplash

Slip inside the eye of your mind… you might find…a better way Staying true to yourself in business takes effort, not just desire. There are tremendous external pressures trying to shape how we think and act at work. Worse, in our ‘dynamic world’, we are encouraged to act quickly in preference to acting thoughtfully. As a result, it can be hard to make better choices – certainly to make ones that always align with what we care about. And we often don't notice the creeping risk such behaviour creates. There's an endless queue of gurus happy to tell you what to do, based on their own worldview. Amid all that noise, it can be really hard to stay in touch with what you actually want, what you hope for and how to do it in the way that's right for you. Instead of always looking out for the answer, we can look in. That takes a bit of practice and can feel uncomfortable when we start. But the rewards when we succeed are tangible and enduring. Coaching can help you get there. A coach’s role is not to dictate, but to facilitate, to help you apply your best self to the challenges you face and develop solutions that satisfy your values and ethics. So why not try investing in yourself for a change? #coaching #leadership #personaldevelopment Image from pixabay

Standing back and taking time to listen and hear what has worked or not already is a step many miss in the desire to drive change at pace and today we operate in increasingly complex systems and the ripple effect is significant.