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June 5, 2009 by Bronwyn Bowery-Ireland, CEO, International Coach Academy (ICA) www.icoachacademy.com [m] +86 15800874784 Last week, I was in Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan speaking to 30 coaches, of which most were students and graduates of ICA. We spoke about the future of coaching and business and the nexus between the two.
In June we are planning a trip to Malaysia to speak to students and people interested in coaching and in July traveling to Australia to speak to staff, and more students and potential coaches.
In October a trip to India is planned, again to meet students, graduates and future coaches. In December a trip to the States to attend a coaching conference.
Now to some people this might sound like a lot of traveling and to others it might sound like the dream job.
To me it is the dream job. I decided some years ago that I wanted to travel to many places around the world. I wanted to meet up and connect with coaches and people doing business in this area. So I made it happen.
If my coaching session is not powerful or I leave feeling not so resolved then this is usually because I was not focused to begin with. I need to carefully plan out what I want to bring to the coaching conversation each week. Some weeks I feel as though I am too exhausted to have my coaching or don’t really have anything to work on. However I am committed to coaching and achieving my goal of growing greater self awareness. So I prepare and on those weeks of tiredness or seeming lack of focus, I leave my coaching session feeling motivated, focused and excited to be moving forward.
I have come to learn that to cancel a coaching session is to lose energy for a week and to lose focus. My coaching sessions are a way of clearing out any feelings or uncertainties in my week. They are a way of moving any negative energy from within me as talking out loud helps how I am feeling and where I am at and to stay present.
I often hear myself telling my coach that it’s painful sometimes to have to be brutally honest with myself and as he always explains, it’s best to be honest with your coach as they are a sound board for you. Let’s think about this concept for a moment. If I didn’t have a coach then this conversation would be going on internally, with my inner self talk. As we all know inner self talk goes round and round and doesn’t actually go anywhere except in a negative energy field. It spirals down into a conversation of justifying and explaining why I shouldn’t do something. Controlling our inner self talk takes great skill.
Thus is the purpose of a coach. It is a conversation that is directed outwards and when we hear ourselves speak we gain clarity as to where we are going and what we are thinking and feeling. My coach asks me questions that get me to explore depths to my thoughts and to my feelings. He allows me a safe and supportive space to test ideas and thoughts.
In the last 12 months I have achieved more things than I have ever achieved through regular, decisive coaching. To not have coaching feels like not eating or nurturing myself. Its just not possible.
Leadership in a Crisis
This recession is much worse than any seen in your lifetime and for millions of people globally it's a time of deep personal trials. Truly everyone is being stress-tested.
Turmoil presents the ultimate leadership opportunity, but for every inspiring story there's at least one less heralded tale of a leader who blows it. So what does true leadership, under unimaginable stress, look like?
It can be boiled down to four actions. They're simple to state and may seem deceptively simple to do, but they aren't. Finding the strength to take these steps will contribute significantly to any leader's growth.
Deflationary Salaries
In a time of rising unemployment, would you welcome a salary reduction as an alternative to a layoff?
In the past nine months a growing number of major companies, including FedEx, Hewlett-Packard, Advanced Micro Devices and The New York Times, have all trimmed their staffers' base pay. Most have made larger cuts for senior executives and smaller ones for the rank-and-file.
According to a Hewitt survey, some 16% of companies in a study of 518 large U.S. employers have made base salary reductions during this recession, and another 21% say they are considering one.
The key is to be sure stars still make more than their lesser-performing colleagues, even after a pay cut. Telling an A+ player that he or she is going to take home less money this year, despite stellar performance, seems like a sure recipe for undermining enthusiasm.
Dave Ulrich, a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, adds that trimming salaries is less risky in well-managed companies. He thinks pay cuts may even boost morale if they avert layoffs among highly engaged employees. "I don't think it's just pay that keeps people connected to a company," says Ulrich.
But other human resource experts argue that managers are paying too little attention to the perils of such cuts. "We haven't yet seen the unintended consequences," says William J. Conaty, an advisor to private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. "People have long memories. They'll remember whether they think they were dealt with equitably."
Source: BUSINESSWEEK, June 8, 2009
Emotions can negatively affect financial decisions
The field of behavioral finance seeks to explain the set of psychological biases that affect people's investment decisions. If you couldn't bring yourself to sell a loser stock, or if you have picked investments because they felt "safe," there's a good chance you're managing your money with your heart and not your head.
So what are these emotion-based behaviors that hurt our investing performance?
One of the more common examples is a so-called "anchoring" bias. Everyone develops attachments that can be irrational sometimes, whether to a house, a car, even a person. People can also get overly attached to a particular investment, believing it will reach--or return to--a certain price.
Another type of bias can cause an investor to ignore realities and do nothing--believing that "I can't sell now. Look how much I have lost!" This "loss aversion" bias has become more common due to the market turmoil, behavioral-finance experts say. Because losses hurt so much, investors tell themselves it's not a loss until they sell. Unfortunately, this investor could end up seeing that stock investment continue to drop.
Investors with an "overconfidence" bias often trade too much and manage their portfolio on a stock-by-stock basis--while assuming they can beat the market, which probably won't happen.
Observers agree it can be difficult for people to recognize the different types of biases in themselves, and even more difficult to overcome them. However, while many of these biases exist, investors and financial advisers can work to lessen some of their effects. Stepping away from the situation before you make a quick investment decision also can help.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2009
"You and I do what many dream of, all their lives."
John G. Agno, Editor, mailto:johnagno@... ...or... Join me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnagno
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