Posts Tagged growth

A few years ago, I worked with a very successful individual who had reached a crossroads in her career.  She had been promoted several times and had risen to a very high level in her organization.  But she was worried.

As I began working with her, she opened up and revealed that she was scared of being found out.  She felt like a phony because she had a couple of weaknesses that she had successfully worked around for years.

The more we talked, the clearer it became that this very successful woman had never taken the time to look honestly at these perceived weaknesses, and so she never understood them or addressed them.  Instead, she developed a series of effective work-arounds that helped her get by at each level.  Finally, she reached a level where she knew she could not hide them any longer.

So what to do?  I encouraged her to be absolutely honest about what she had been hiding from herself, and it turned out that several of her issues were easily addressed with some focused effort.

However, some of the other “weaknesses” were more likely related to physical issues that she had never understood before.  For these we worked out a plan to go to a specialist to see if there were underlying physiological issues that had gone undiagnosed.  Once she learned about these she was able to work out a treatment plan with her doctor and discovered a completely new way to function.

The message here is that having someone ask us the right questions can point us in new directions with a renewed opportunity to stop working around problems and finally resolve them.

Getting the right people on the bus.  This is a phrase we often hear from executives concerned about staffing strength.  Making sure that you have the right people in your organization is critical to efficiency and growth.

But getting the right people on the bus doesn’t solve your problems if they aren’t in the right seats.
The right person in the wrong place is just as unproductive as the wrong person in the right place.

Putting the right person properly placed requires a combination of knowledge and insight.  Knowledge means getting to know your staff.  Not just how well they do their jobs, but how well they communicate.  How effectively they work as part of a team.   How well they manage conflict.

Management Skills. Promoting an individual because of strong technical skills is a frequently used strategy.  But management requires a completely different set of skills—people skills necessary to effectively move others to higher levels of performance.

Hidden Gems. So be on the lookout for the hidden gems.  These are often the individuals who handle conflict effectively.  Those who can inspire others to do more.  Those who can reduce problems instead of creating them.  And those who can get more work done through other people instead of doing it themselves.

These are the people who will be most effective as they move up the management ladder, because they are the ones who will be most likely to shine.

What is the difference between coaches and really good coaches?  Hint: it isn’t their knowledge, their experience, or even their latest book.  The real difference lies in the ability to ask “The Question”.

“The Question” is different for every coaching candidate, but it always challenges their point of view—it brings things into focus in a way that didn’t exist before.  It is this ability to ask probing, insightful, difficult questions that moves a coach from good to great.

Go To The Heart. The best coaches look below the surface of a situation and get right to its essence, cutting through the clutter and going to the main point behind the details.

Keep It Simple. The best question is often simple, going directly to root causes.  It facilitates real growth through its ability to bring both clarity and discomfort into the conversation.

When you are looking for a coach, listen to them talk and you will often see this ability in the good ones.  They are able to take what you say, reframe it, and then pose a question that helps you pull the answer out of yourself.  This is where true growth begins.