Category — Performance Coaching

Today’s post is looking into the abilities to harness power from the ocean without destroying it, harming it, changing it significantly, or otherwise impact it. When looking at this approach, it becomes obvious that the current discussion about the Gulf oil spill and all the consequences our previous activities in the oceans have had are relevant.

Instead of using the ocean as our garbage collector, i.e. the plastic patch in the Pacific, the place we run the risk of spilling oil that we otherwise refine and burn to send the CO2 into the atmosphere from which it rains down onto the ocean together with other chemicals and harms its organisms. I addition, the CO2 leads to an increased speed in glacial melting, which I turn reduces the salt content of the oceans, potentially impacting many of the species living there.

Today I invite you to take a look at new options, including Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, Wave Action energy generation, the Wave-power-Station, which, if applied everywhere could cover 40% of current global power demand, and an idea now being put into reality off the North Sea coast of Germany – the Ocean Wind Park.

I hope you enjoy and learn from what the video shows and let many other people know about this and other content here. Please comment and let me know what you think

Coaching has been around for some time now. I am not talking about the sports coaching, but coaching in business and as a profession to help other people. Though we are stills struggling to come up with common definitions, we can clearly state that it has established itself as a professional service available to individuals and organizations, for profit and non-profit alike.

Opportunity

For those people who are already coaches, like me, it is always a goal to become a better coach, gain more knowledge and provide a better service to the clients. At the same time, when coaching is the activity that put money in the wallet and bread on the table of the family, it is important to explore how to increase fees, find new combinations of services, potentially through webinars, teleclasses, group, coaching, etc.

When we explore part of the ever growing literature, here is some of what can be found:

As corporations recognize the need to retain good employees, the ability to develop coaching skills in managers becomes a necessity (Ellinger, Ellinger, & Keller, 2003; Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2002; Hunt & Weintraub, 2002).  Three empirical studies have explored the role of a coaching manager in an organizational setting.  Using critical incident analysis to determine triggers and outcomes for coaching, Ellinger (1999) explored these incidents with managers within a learning organization to assess the overall impact of coaching as a performance improvement strategy

Olivero, Bane and Kopelman (1997) found that coaching when augmenting a training program increased productivity by 80%.  This finding supports the contentions made by Conger and Benjamin (1999) and Goleman et al.  (2002) that training alone is ineffective in sustaining behavior change.  While there were a number of potential explanations for the dramatic change in productivity, Olivero et al. (1997) contend that two coaching aspects contributed most to the change–goal setting and public presentation.  The coaches supported clients in setting goals that were challenging, measurable, assignable, realistic, and time-bound.  There was also a feedback loop for providing guidance to behaviors that were addressed in the training. 

Possibility

The benefits from coaching relationships are endless.  Though it may not happen instantly, those who have been in this life changing, but challenging, working relationship can attest to it.  The success of the coaching relationship may take months to establish, as well as gain the trust (Osborne, 2008).

However, the benefits of training programs are sometimes difficult to sustain when returning to work.  Managers return to their jobs and are confronted with the challenges and the day-to-day obstacles that prevent the application of the new skills. Issues can also arise when managers return to work and are faced with new or unexpected situations. 

 Admittedly, we want to be better than pure training programs and want for our students, clients, and coachees to have lasting changes in their life, their behaviors and their professions. To achieve these goals it would be wonderful to have a place all coaches could call home, could find what they need to improve themselves and use as a forum to discuss cases, get to know new approaches and tools and generally improve the profession. Some schools and organizations like ICF offer these forums, but they don’t really take care of the members because their focus lies in different areas. A partnership of professional and certified coaches has come together to develop and offer such a place for all coaches. The company is called Innovision Global. Though the new home for coaches is still under construction, you can already take a peak at what will be at http://www.innovisiongloballlc.com

Unlocking the Future

What we also recognized it the fact that coaching has been moving, like many tings, form the United States into the world, reaching the shores of Asia and especially Europe. The concept is better known and many individuals interested in coaching have taking certification classes with US coaching schools. In some cases some offerings are also available in the countries of the European Union.

With the transfer of the profession should come a transfer of modern technologies and the application of local languages. To make this possible, a team of certified coaches has come together and created “The Coaching Academy Europe”, one of the first organizations to offer interactive, online coaching certification training with Master Coaches present every minute of the training. Importantly, the system is licensed by one of the most successful coaching institutes in the United States and offered in local languages, beginning with English, German, and Spanish. In the long run the goal is to expand to man more languages. The developing website can be reviewed at http://www.coachingacademyeurope.com.

Classes will start in early October and allow established coaches to decide if they like to become master Coaches in the system. At the same time people interested in coaching can become certified for extremely affordable fees. Even the in-person option through traditional onsite training is offered in a compressed format, keeping cost low while quality of training and systematic consistency are high.

Togetherness

The graduates of ‘The Coaching Academy Europe’ are invited to join the new home for coaches at Innovision Global and learn for the best coaches and the best materials and tools as they build their businesses. At the same time the diversity and cultural mix will provide a global home for all coaches, rather than a place for US nationals. Together in training, certification, and through a common membership, we will be able to take the next steps in the development of the coaching profession.

Before getting into today’s article, please do me a favor, scroll down the page and become a friend on Google Friend Connect on the left side. This will help you link to here and help me link with you. Thanks

Do you sometimes get messages from a well meaning friend or someone who is looking for answers to urgent problems? I do.

Recently I received a message on Facebook form a friend there. She forwarded information a family member had received about the way to solve our energy and fuel problems once and for all without having to go to any Arab country or anywhere away form the US.

I thought she would tell me about a new technology that was found or a new invention that would soon allow us to become independent. Instead the news was about large oil fields discovered in the Dakotas, called “The Bakken”

Here is my response and below you find the original message I received

Thanks Friend (to protect the innocent)
I think it is true. What I heard about it is that it is very complex to recover this oil. Under good circumstances, the oil industry recovers about 3% of a field. That is under good conditions. When it is complicated, like is probably the case with these finds, they probably don’t get much more than 1%. Even that would still be substantial.

South Dakota

What is really the flaw in all of this is the approach itself. If a formula would have been found in 1910 that would have allowed to raise, grow and sustain horses that would have been stringer, eat less than normal horses, and don’t create a much poop as typical horses, while costing no more than what we were used to, do you think we should have all gone back to horse buggies?

The main point is that this oil is basically a huge carbon storage field. If it is brought to the surface and burned, the carbon will be released and our climate will get worse even faster than it already is.

Oil Pipeline

There are still a few people who don’t want to believe that we are living in a time of rapid climate change. They point to snow in New York and Washington this year as a sign that the scientists are all fools. When we review the larger studies being done on a regular basis, we can clearly find that the plant is changing. Yes, we can wait to see if it is really the carbon. I think we should rather go with Tee Boone Pickens and find alternatives. The oil we preserve should be used for the things nobody is talking about, like all the plastics we use, the creams and cosmetics we apply, and many many more things made on oil based components.

Yes we should all write to our congressmen and women, but to tell them that now is the time to take us into a new future, where we are not dependable on foreign oil because we use the wind, and the sun, and the warmth in our soils to generate more than we need.

Here is a plan that would actually work and get us into a new era of energy independence while leaving the carbon storage places, like Bakken, where they are.

I think that’s a better plan. Good thing we both try to find ways to get the country independent from foreign oil and foreign radical influence.

Axel

“The Green Leadership Coach”

AEM.EDBD

Here is the original message from my friend. Tell me what you think about it

If there is any truth to this, then we should all be writing our Congressmen. I tried to check it out on truthorfiction.com, but all I could get were references to Bakken Oil sites. Given the state of our government at this moment, it is probably true. Interesting reading, regardless. I’ve written to all of our Oklahoma congressmen, but they are essentially useless, so doubt that they will even bother to read it.

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April (’08) that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn’t been updated since ‘95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota; western South Dakota; and extreme eastern Montana …… check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska ’s Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels.. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable… at $107 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

‘When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.’ says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst.

‘This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years.’ reports, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the ‘Bakken.’ And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada. For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the ‘Big Oil’ companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves…. and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight.
2. And if THAT didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it’s from TWO YEARS AGO!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

- 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
- 18-times as much oil as Iraq
- 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
- 22-times as much oil as Iran
- 500-times as much oil as Yemen
- and it’s all right here in the Western United States .

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy….WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

Don’t think ‘ OPEC’ will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It’s all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to. Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?

Got your attention/ire up yet? Hope so! Now, while you’re thinking about it …. and hopefully P.O’d, do this:

3. Pass this along. If you don’t take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices … because by doing NOTHING, you’ve forfeited your right to complain.

As some of the more frequent readers will recall, I am working on my doctorate degree. Some may actually ask: “Will he ever finish?”

I have asked myself that same question and lately it actually looks like I might after all. Before I get into the real dissertation phase, I have to work on creating an idea, kind of like an outline, describing what I ma actually trying to study.

As someone who is fascinated by coaching and the improvements a coach can trigger in a person, I want to make coaching part of this important work. During a recent conversation with my advisor, we looked at my plans and what a possible title could be. Though we haven’t settled on anything, the position of a coach as the best friend of a leader received a lot of focus.

You may know that many of the more recent and best selling business books have described the work of a leader as something much different than most people would think. There isn’t much natural born charisma at work (in most cases). There isn’t much old patriarch or dictator-behavior anymore. Instead we find humble servants to the organization, as Jim Collins describes them in his book “Good to Great”.

In other publications we find the need of focus by the leader, as described by Jody Gittel in “The Southwest Airlines Way”. This particular focus is on customer services, as we all know about Southwest Airlines.

Thomas Friedman, Steve Farber, John Kotter, and many others talk about the engagement a leader needs to affect change in the organization and move it forward while constantly adjusting to changing market situations and customer demands.

What many experts seem to agree on is the statement: “It’s lonely at the top”

The discussion with my mentor lead to the suggestion to take a look at the book by Buckingham and Coffman, titled: “First break all the rules”

As a good student, I did and found an interesting list of questions and key secrets for great managers and leaders the authors developed. The questions serve as a measure about how well the employees in an organization have been selected. That directly leads to how long they stay and how satisfied they are. The book claims that this is much more important than pay, leave, or any of the more common issues of employment.

The 4 key secrets about a great manager determine the kind of person it takes to reach this accolade. It appears to me that the authors use the word manager synonymous with the word leader. I personally don’t agree that the two terms should be used in this way, but for the purpose of this description, I am sure we can live with it

Here are the 4 secret keys from the book “First break all the rules”:

1. Select for talent - the authors define talent as “recurring patterns of behavior” and state that great managers find the match between talents and roles. 
2. Define the right outcomes - managers needs to turn talent into performance. This can be done by defining the right outcomes and letting people find their own route toward the outcomes. 
3. Focus on strengths - managers need to concentrate on strengths and not on weaknesses. 
4. Find the Right Fit - managers need to assign roles to employees that give the employees the greatest chance of success.

Next comes the list of questions for employees:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work? 
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right? 
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day? 
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work? 
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person? 
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development? 
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count? 
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel like my work is important? 
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work? 
10. Do I have a best friend at work? 
11. In the last six months, have I talked with someone about my progress? 
12. At work, have I had the opportunities to learn and grow?”

You might ask yourself, why I am showing you these lists of secrets and questions. Well, one reason is to educate and expand understanding. The other is question # 10.

I believe the question about the best friend at work will not only be asked for employees, but also for managers and leaders. I haven’t finished coming up with a complete and solid definition of a best friend, but here are some of the attributes I believe belong into this definition:

• A best friend know details about the other persons life
• A best friend has (relatively) free access to the other person 
• A best friend wants to help the other person, independent of politics or other inhibitors (like money, status, etc)
• A best friend can say pretty much anything to the other person (good and bad things, honest feedback, unimpeded perspectives)
• A best friend gives the other person warnings when things seem to go in the wrong direction
• A best friend sticks with the other person even in challenging times
• A best friend has empathy and genuinely cares on a factual and emotional level for the other person
• A best friend doesn’t differentiate between work and private life – every topic is acceptable
• A best friend is a confidant, protecting insights as much as the other person itself
• A best friend is available to the other person no matter what

There are probably a number of other items that should go on the list. I would actually enjoy receiving lots of feedback on more things that define a best friend.

When it comes to my topic of the coach as the possible best friend of the leader, a lot of the things on the list apply. Especially the fact that both positive and negative things can be openly discussed, that no topic is off limits, and that the coach doesn’t have a personal, financial, or work/promotion related agenda appear to be very relevant

Not in this article, but at some other time it might be worth analyzing what this means for the idea of internal coaching versus traditional, external coaching. I leave it with a question for now: ‘Can a co-worker, potentially in a higher position, ever really become a credible coach in the sense of a best friend described above?’

I will keep looking at the role of a coach serving a leader or great manager Let me know what your thoughts are and what your criteria of a best friend would be.

Axel Meierhoefer, AMC LLC

This weekend I was working and learning more about how to create a coaching program online. To get the right start I began listening to the training videos Brian Campbell has created as part of the Social Media Marketing System.

He is describing in a lot of detail how a person who wants to coach and make the online world part of the revenue generating stream should proceed.

In his systematic approach Brian, at one point, mentions that a coach tells other people what to do. My immediate reaction was: “that’s not really true, at least not as I see my coaching work”. He goes on to compare this coaching to the coaching done in sports , where the coach actually tells the athletes what to do – or does he? 

Come to think of it, especially with the Olympics fresh in all our minds, we have seen many coaches passionately talk to their teams or athletes when things aren’t going right. At the same time we all know that claim that the coach is not actually performing the sport and has to depend ion the execution of the player or athlete.

In business or individual coaching the same thing applies. It is really not so much telling someone what to do but to remind him or her how to best apply their talents.  I dug a little deeper and found the following definition in the most recent issue of T&D Magazine, the publication of www.ASTD.org.

They say:  Coaching is: ‘Lifting individuals beyond their comfort zone’ The editor, Paula Ketter goes on to describe her view of the situation around coaching as follows:

“Coaching, historically, has been viewed as an opportunity to improve relationships or behaviors, create mutually satisfactory solutions, and attain positive outcomes when differences arise between and among people. But that’s just one form of coaching.

Coaching has become more sophisticated and can involve everyone from the C-suite, to teams, to new hires. A coach can play myriad roles—designer, facilitator, instructor, and coach—and employ many solutions to help individuals or teams become more effective and productive.

It is becoming commonplace for executives to have coaches. While there used to be a stigma attached to having a coach, the fast-paced competitive business environment is forcing individuals and teams to get up-to-speed faster than ever before.

That warrants having a coach—an independent observer from the outside who can be objective when examining the organization, the roles individuals play in that organization, and the expectations placed upon those individuals.

Coaching should be a partnership with willing participants. With formal training, coaches can be invaluable in inspiring clients to maximize their professional potential through a creative and thought-provoking process.

Coaches should be ready to provide feedback, focus on rapid results, and take clients beyond their comfort zones.Retaining talent, promoting from within, and creating high performing individuals and teams should be a critical part of your organization’s business strategy.”

I believe coaching is acting as a guide to help individuals, groups, or businesses utilize their talents and strength, discover ways to achieve their dreams and vision, and provide guidance on the path of success.  In that sense, the consultant is probably more the person to tell someone or an organization what to do, often after a lengthy and expensive analysis of all the circumstances.

In this context it would actually be great advice form a consultant to suggest for a person, leader or organization to get/hire a coach to help guide the suggested process, so the suggestions aren’t becoming shelf knowledge and collect dust.

To round out this trio, the mentor is a little bit of a coach and a little bit of a consultant, but also a cheerleader for a certain direction or on behalf of a person.

When a coach should have experience and broad knowledge about the field he is coaching in, the mentor, at least in business and life mentoring needs to have detailed knowledge and experience. He is mentoring someone to learn form him or her how to do something. It’s is mainly a transfer of knowledge and wisdom form one individual to another or to a group.

I hope this clarifies what the differences in the tree terms are and what one can get out of each profession. It should also show that it wouldn’t be unusual to have a consultant or consulting company, a coach, and a mentor all serving the same company or organization on different issues and goals.

It can be confusing and the media has a tendency to use there terms interchangeable. Maybe this little description will help you keep them apart in the future. If you have your own definitions, like to add to my thoughts or feel you can’t agree with my views, please send me a comment and let’s talk about it. 

Axel Meierhoefer, AMC LLC