Areion Advisors

Bold career moves help.

What would you do? “How many of you are good at solving problems? There’s nothing wrong with being good at problem solving. Except when it prevents the people you lead from learning and developing. When you solve problems for the people who report to you, they don’t get a chance to do their own thinking or take ownership of the solutions you’ve handed them. Creativity becomes stunted and learning is stalled because those very smart people you lead don’t get to think on their own. Asking an insightful question instead helps them to focus on what they want to do. When that insight happens, they can move forward with clarity and commitment. There are plenty of reasons to ask more questions like “What would you do?” or “What possibilities do you see here?” These are open-ended, thought-provoking questions, not solutions disguised as questions. The most compelling reasons to ask rather than tell may be grounded in neuroscience. Here is the short version of what happens when you ask an insightful question of one of your employees: Neuroplasticity: The first thing you need to know is that the brain isn’t hardwired like an electrical appliance. If it was, people would be stuck doing things the way they’ve always done them forever. Enter something called neuroplasticity, which means our brains can physically change to encourage creative thinking and new knowledge. The neurons can move into new locations in our brain when we learn. Questions can act as a catalyst for our brains to change and move forward with new insight. Reflection: When you ask a question instead of giving the answer, the entire brain gets active as it reflects, releasing serotonin (allowing it to relax). This encourages gathering intelligence from all areas of the brain, allowing for more insight than would happen if you provided solutions to others. New neuronal connections begin to be made as the brain moves closer to finding solutions. Action: As serotonin is released, a rush of energy (or insight) occurs as the brain fires up, moving ahead and discovering the solutions to a problem. The person who is the recipient of the question becomes motivated and ready to do something. This burst of energy to take care of the problem is short lived, so you can help by asking them to commit to doing something later. And then you can ask them how they’ll stay accountable to their commitment. When someone is stuck, ask an open-ended, insightful question. The brain becomes activated, and will find the best way to help it to discover the solution. And the funny thing is, it might be even better than one you would have thought of. Brilliant." From, "The Neuroscience of Asking Insightful Questions," by Mary Jo Asmus, Government Executive, April 26, 2017

The (hidden) key to influence.

Why Coach Top Talent? It pays. Top talent looks for opportunities to learn, grow, and excel. This quality can be the one that distinguishes "A-players."  (@BarbaraCorcoran says "A" players are "A" players because they spend zero time feeling sorry for themselves and bounce back quickly. Maybe it's the same thing.) Research indicates that high performers are 400% more productive. The gap rises with a job's complexity. In highly complex occupations, this increases to 800%. And yet, only 3% of Fortune 500 executives believe their companies develop people quickly and effectively. (Attracting and Retaining the Right Talent, by Scott Keller, McKinsey). How can this be? The executive coaching process is simple and effective for high-performers and anyone who desires to be one. However, coaching in organizations is complex. It takes time. We've found the following to be key to improving outcomes. ViGMAR Strategy - Vision: align coaching objectives with big-picture strategy and current context to increase motivation and connection to purpose - Mission: include the organization through education and participation to encourage broader engagement in growth and development - Goals: apply coaching insights to real-time business priorities through action planning to reinforce the relevance - Action: support real-time exploration, balance, and change to accelerate learning and manage stress - Results: Establish standards for leadership and knowledge transfer to embed learning, sustainability, and transformation Engagements can be structured in many ways, including unstructured. I like using the vision, mission, goals, actions, and results frame (for many things) because it organizes visionary, strategic, and tactical ideas in one place with emotional content (values) and accountability measures. Further, many clients benefit from personalized learning or practice in areas such as culture, context, and politics, managing up, self-assessment, vision, networking, feedback, team dynamics. And, before all of this, the most elusive thing, readiness. For more information contact: Lisa Mashburn Managing Parter lisa@areionllc.com +1.917.374.4214

"#innovation is about #culture, which is shaped by leaders' behaviors and decisions"

All from a bubble --> https://lnkd.in/e3ibxYau

Big things happening at Chief!

Are you ready? “Since the global financial crisis, growing regulatory requirements around technical capabilities have created a generation of financial services executives with singular expertise in certain areas, rather than well-rounded leaders who are ready to become CEOs.” Planning for the Expected: CEO Succession in Financial Services https://bit.ly/3yZgK4L

Valuable insights for aspiring CEOs from Dr Ty Wiggins.

How is 2024 shaping up so far? We are conducting research into key elements of leadership we believe will be useful to our network.  The topic is "Vision." If you are interested in participating you can access the (6) questions here: https://lnkd.in/eM3WQSzt The estimated time to complete is 3-5 minutes. Responses will be accepted until May 5th. If sufficient data is collected, responses will be compiled and shared upon request. For more information please contact lisa@areionllc.com.