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May 27, 2010

Part II Wholeness: Human & Organizational Social Change through Coaching

Community of Coaching, Executive Coaching, Leadership Coaching, Mentor Coaching, Organizational Wholeness, Human Wholeness,  

choice Magazine Expert Series Tele-Seminar with Garry Schleifer

Recently I shared a study sponsored by Bloomberg and The Hay Group about the Top 20 Companies for Leaders.  One of the most powerful results was that these companies outperform, on a 5-year weighted average, the Standard & Poor's index by 8 to 1.  That is a powerful differentiation from the competition and meaningful financial, bottom line performance. 

What this study and others point to is that leaders drive performance, and performance is about energy and the ways that leaders (read here that everyone is leader) create an environment that facilitates energy flow.  In tonight's choice Magazine call we focused on the ways that our traditional approach to leading organizations drains energy.  Make this personally relevant as you read this blog.  Consider your workplace and times when you felt fatigue, distress, anxiousness, fear maybe, driven, alone to do all that needs to be done.  These are usually the result of being focused on competition, self-interest and comparison with others; usually we get focused there because the environment doesn't feel safe.  Unfortunately this is a paradox that doesn't resolve in our favor.  The more energy we expend the more compounding the negative impact of our behavior on others.  Ultimately, and perhaps the silver lining here, is that this is a symptom of an unwelcoming environment.  The good news is that some companies are recognizing there is another way, one that honors each individual's wholeness and thereby supports generative learning and organizational wholeness.  In fact in these top 20 companies, an important best practice is creating a culture of coaching and peer to peer support.  What are some of the other characteristics of the culture within the Top 20 Companies for Leaders?

• 1) Big, complex and global; global issues are important and a pool of successors for mission critical roles is paramount
  --- These companies recognizing the shrinking impact of geography that technollogy enables and every company has the potential to leverage the broadening of the marketplace
• 2) Modern, fun, learning-oriented workplaces; moving between functions is extremely common, people are expected to lead regardless of position, authority, emotions are openly discussed in the workplace
  --- These companies dare to challenge traditional modes of thinking about checking individuality at the door in favor of inviting diversity and encouraging leaders at every level in every job
• 3) Collaboration is the path to innovation; employees are encouraged to take new approaches to solving programs, if you see a problem or opportunity you are allowed to address it.
  --- Authority is granted and supported; accountability is not enforced, it results from the freedom to act and to do so with innate creativity

Consider reflecting on your organization or your client organizations.  What new awareness might you facilitate that will support leaders in that organization in seeing the powerful, financial, bottom line performance impact of improving the way of relating in the culture?  We'd love to hear your stories and we'll keep sharing ours.

Mark you calendar; don't miss Part III of the Expert Series offered on August 26th.  And, a very special event coming on June 24th, with Amorah Ross talking about how to catapult your coaching by working with a certified mentor coach!