The coach is a teacher and facilitative leader but the process is learner-directed. The learner determines where he or she needs to be going and the tools that are necessary to be successful. Below are a list of resources including books and journals that will be a useful adjunct to executive coaching.
The Harvard Business Review is an excellent resource available by subscription, at the newsstand or on-line. The monthly periodical offers cutting edge articles about coaching and leadership. Consider two of their special issues: "Breakthrough Leadership," 12/01 and "Inside the Mind of the Leader," 1/04. Both of these journals are packed with relevant materials for busy executives.
MASTERFUL COACHING by Robert Hargrove (published by Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1995) "offers tools and methods for achieving desired results by bringing about profound changes in thinking and behavior with individuals, groups, and entire organizations." This well written and readable book has a business management perspective drawing on the theories and writings of academics such as Chris Argyris of Harvard and Peter Senge of MIT. (Information about transformational coaching, as described by Hargrove, is derived from a variety of contexts including business management, leadership, organizational and clinical psychology.)
According to Hargrove, the coach intervenes "in some way with the idea of helping people to learn and improve.... The first involves a repackaging (more, better, or different) of what they are already doing. The second involves helping people learn to do something that is fundamentally different. A masterful coach is always asking penetrating questions: 'What unintended results are you getting? How are you contributing to them? Where are you stuck in an old pattern? How could you look at the problem or solution in a different way? What's missing that could make a difference?'"
You'll find this book to be inspirational but for tailor-made approaches to growth and change you may want your own executive coach. Learners can benefit from this book directly or from a coach who values and subscribes to it's principles and practices.
In 2000 Hargrove wrote a compendium to Masterful Coaching. It is a 350 page workbook filled with useful strategies, practices and exercises called MASTERFUL COACHING FIELDBOOK. Learners can benefit from this book directly or from a coach who values and subscribes to it's principles and practices.
http://amazon.com
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (Bantam Books, N.Y., 1995) sets the stage for understanding how those who excel in life have certain emotional qualities that distinguish them from others who possess similar intellectual abilities.
Daniel Goleman, Ph.D. is a psychologist who covers behavioral and brain science stories for the New York Times. He is the author of two books that have tremendous significance for self and organizational improvement. In the first book, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, he demonostrates how emotional intelligence, not fixed like I.Q., can be strengthened and enhanced throughout life. He outlines five domains of emotional intelligence including: self awareness, managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others (empathy) and handling relationships. The person who develops these capacities can have a more satisfying and successful life.
In 1998 Goleman wrote, WORKING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (Bantam Books, N.Y.)which demonstrates how star performers at work possess higher levels of emotional intelligence qualities than others. He summarizes hundreds of studies, with case examples, showing which emotional intelligence factors make a difference and how they separate "stars" from others.
We are reminded that entering a chosen field of work requires a basic level of intelligence. There is very little I.Q. difference at the point of entry. For example, getting a degree or going to professional school demands better than average or superior intelligence but success is not dependent on I.Q. but rather on emotional intelligence.
"Emotional intelligence skills are synergistic with cognitive ones; top performers have both. The more complex the job, the more emtional intelligence matters - if only because a deficiency in these abilities can hinder the use of whatever technical expertise or intellect a person may have." His framework includes two spheres of competence: personal (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation) and social(empathy, social skills) which he defines and demonstrates in various case studies.
This is a fascinating book that lays a foundation for critical skills that can be learned. You can read the book or find a coach who is familiar and comfortable with these concepts. Your coach can work with you to identify, assess and enhance your emotional intelligence abilities.
In 2002 Daniel Goleman teamed with Richard Boyatziz and Annie McKee to write PRIMAL LEADERSHIP: REALIZING THE POWER OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE. It explores the role of emotional intelligence in leadership providing multiple examples of resonant leaders from the public and private sectors.
http://amazon.com
If you are inclined to teach yourself how to expand your emotional capacities then this book can be a valuable, step-by-step resource:
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AT WORK was written by Hendrie Weisinger, Ph.D. (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1998) who does an excellent job of translating the concepts of emotional intelligence into strategies that can be taught and learned.
The core competencies of emotional intelligence are broken down into bite size pieces to be chewed on and digested. These include self-motivation, high self-awareness, managing moods and relating to others more effectively. For example, in one section the author discusses, and helps you to develop, four sources of motivation: yourself; supportive friends, family, and colleagues; an emotional mentor; and your environment. His strategies are well thought out and easy to follow.
For those of you who don't learn best by reading, enlist a coach to guide you, help you rehearse, provide a listening ear and stay on your case until you achieve your goals. Look for someone with experience, credentials and a proven track record. Consider Silicon Valley Executive Coaching.
ARTICLES:
Social Smarts
Experts say the secret to getting ahead in you career comes down to social intelligence.
BY TRACI VOGEL
WAVE MAGAZINE
WWW.THEWAVEMAG.COM March 12-25, 2008
We've all heard
the quintessential high school reunion story: the class nerd, socially inept
and the butt of jokes, returns in a limo, flashing cash from his or her
successful business venture. Brains win out in the end, just like your teacher
told you.
But what about
the average but popular student - the George W. Bush - who makes good~ Daniel
Goleman, the psychologist and journalist, pondered this question in his 2006
book, Social
Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships.
"For years
I've wondered why some people who do so well in school go nowhere in life,
while others of ordinary academic talent rise to the top," he wrote.
"The valedictorian of my high school class, Sheldon, went on to start one
of the first patent law firms in Silicon Valley. No surprise there - we all
knew Sheldon was brilliant. The real surprise was my friend Kent: He ' was an average student
but socially adept. By our 40th reunion, he had become CEO of his own cable
company, sold it and was living contentedly on a golf course in Florida."
Brains may be
the biggest marker of success in school, but we need another kind of smarts to
reach the top in life: social intelligence, which Goleman defines as "the
aptitude that makes us smart in our relationships." People with high
social intelligence tend to be likable, influential, even inspirational.
They're able to "click” with others without seeming ingratiating, and they
make you want to work for them. How do they do it?
Francine Toder,
Ph.D., a consultant, psychologist, and executive coach based in Palo Alto,
teaches people to be more efficient managers in part by increasing their social
intelligence. "The typical scenario is a person with superior tech skills,
like an engineer or scientist," she says. "They're highly valued and
often highly paid, and they're very good at what they do."
The problem is,
the skills that make a good individual performer don't necessarily make a good
manager. "1 remember an engineer I worked with that was very talented, but
he would blow up," Toder notes. Silicon Valley has no shortage of people that
are very talented but have bad tempers."
Toder helps
these clients understand how others see them. "When you're not aware of
your own limitations, there's no buy-in," she explains. Self-awareness -
the ability to be conscious of one's emotions and accurately assess them - is
one of the pillars of social intelligence, along with self-regulation (the
ability to regulate one's emotions), and self-motivation.
Once a person is
cognizant of how they're perceived and how their emotions affect others,
they're ready to learn social skills such as empathy." It is these higher level skills that allow for reading
another person's moods, understanding their motivations, and navigating a path
through the minefield of interpersonal relationships.
After all, as
Toder reminds us, "A workplace is like any other social system - it's more
effective if people can communicate with each other accurately. There is
synergy in that and it
creates
a better work place. There is a lot of evidence that the ROI [return on
investment] in the corporate world is really affected by the ability of a
team to work together effectively."
Far from being
touchy-feely psychobabble, these kinds of lessons are based in recent
discoveries in neuroscience. Human beings, it turns out, may be equipped with
"mirror neuron" networks. These neurons fire when we see
another person performing
an action or experiencing an emotion. It's been proposed that mirror neurons enable
us to understand other people's intentions - an understanding that's invaluable
when it comes to office politics or to motivating employees.
"These are
the subtleties that really make a difference in one's ability to navigate in a
really tricky, complex environment," says Toder. "People that are
more aware of what they’re thinking, what they're feeling, who know what their
emotions are and how to manage them, and who know what others feel and think, just have an advantage.
It's such an
advantage, says Toder, that many companies are making such training a perk.
"There is this interest in social intelligence," she says. More and
more people in MBA programs and
engineering programs are beginning to learn about management styles and
leadership training.
"There are
people I see who arc technically brilliant, and sometimes people say, 'Let's
make an exception for him or her,'" Toder continues. "I'm not going
to name names, but there are several CEOs of companies in Silicon Valley that
are almost impossible to work for, but people are willing to tolerate them
because they're so unique. It gets old."
The old model of
the eccentric, unstable genius may be on its way out the door. The new model
will be much more fun to work for. TW
Francine Toder, Ph.D., 667 Lytton Ave., Palo Alto (650) 325-4588 www.doctoder.com