THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO
I have posted before about the importance of a coach or mentor in your career development, or being a coach when you can be. This great TED Talk perfectly encapsulates that coaching experience and impact. Regardless of what or role you are in or what stage in your career, a coach will continue to drive your learning and growth! I couldn't help but to pick out a couple of important excerpts from his talk below. However take a quick 15 minutes out of your day and listen to the whole talk. I have had the opportunity to work with a couple of executive coaches and several other mentors over the course of my career and I can attest first hand how transformational their impact has had on my personal and professional development. Atul's take on coaching is spot on. www.ted.com/talks/atul_gawande_want_to_get_great_at_something_get_a_coach "They are your external eyes and ears providing a more accurate picture of your reality. They're recognizing the fundamentals. They're breaking your actions down and then helping you build them back up again." "I think it's not just how good you are now, I think that it's how good you're going to be that really matters."
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On the first day of my college internship, I can still vividly remember my CIO tell me “You are going to make mistakes, just don’t make it a big one.” 20+ years later, that advice is just as true as the day he told me. No matter what career stage we are in, we are still going to make mistakes. CEOs all the way down to interns make mistakes. To be successful in our roles and as leaders is how we deal with those situations. Every mistake is a learning opportunity. How we learn and adapt from those experiences helps us grow into better professionals and better leaders. Making mistakes is part of the learning and development process…it is experience building and teaches us to deal with adversity. At the time, it seemed like a lot of pressure coming into my first professional IT role outside of school and having access to major systems that the business relied on. But my CIO’s statement not only calmed my nerves but focused me on getting the job done right. Having said that, the part about not making a “big one” is always important to keep focused on. Understanding risks and business / organizational impacts is such an important skill for everyone to learn. It is something I always want my team members to consider. If you are less experienced and unsure of the potential risk or impact of your decision, ask! Knowing is half the battle! I have been fortunate throughout my career to work with some great mentors and professional coaches. I am also grateful for the opportunity to help mentor and coach people during their career journey. They have helped shape who I have become as a leader today. While being a leader inevitably puts you in a position to mentor and coach those on your team or others around you at work, I think it is important to acknowledge the importance and impact an outside mentor or coach can have on someone. Sometimes people think that only younger workers need a mentor or coach…nothing could be farther from the truth!! No one is too old or too experienced to not have a benefit of working with a mentor or coach. A mentor can informally help guide you or provide objective advice that you may not normally observe or learn on your own. It is important to seek out mentors who have experience in areas that you are looking to learn, grow, or expand in. Perhaps they can help you with a weakness you think you may have. While friends and co-workers can provide feedback, and outside mentor can often give feedback the correct objective perspective that those close to can sometimes not see because they are too close to you. If you have the opportunity to participate in a professional development program involving an executive or professional business coach, I encourage everyone to take advantage of it! A good coaching experience that is part of professional development program is a great way to really focus on key areas of improvement or further sharpen key skills. Twice in my career, I have worked with executive coaches at key junctures in my professional development. Their ability to quickly hone in a key areas and provide concrete steps to improve my own leadership and performance helped step up my career to the next level. I challenge all of the leaders out there to take advantage of opportunities to be a mentor or coach for someone else who you can help. Whether it is someone just starting off their career or someone looking to grow, you have the opportunity to be a positive impact on someone! I am excited to be currently partnering with the Penn State Alumni Association as a coach for their newest iteration of the Young Alumni Ambassador program. As part of the program, myself and 16 other alumni coaches are paired with a recent graduate to help coach them 1 on 1 over the next year as they begin to transition from college life into professional life. It is an exciting program and I am looking forward to the opportunity to give back and return the coaching favor to help a future leader! When working with young leaders or doing some leadership development activities, I sometimes get asked “what is the best way to build support for your ideas?” They have great ideas but feel like they are struggling to be heard or can’t generate support for their ideas. I’d encourage you to read a great article on a similar topic by Jim Schleckser, CEO at the Inc. CEO Project. “Why Great Leaders Ask Great Questions” https://www.inc.com/jim-schleckser/why-great-leaders-ask-great-questions.html However, here are my two cents on the topic. I can still remember back to the first executive coach I worked with almost 10 years ago now, and this is one of the topics we talked about. Sometimes as a leader, your thoughts and ideas are already well formulated and ahead of your team or colleagues. Your job in meetings and conversations is not to jump straight to the conclusion but instead build up your support and form a guiding coalition towards the end goal. You may know what’s best or have the best idea, but you have to give people time to follow you there. So how can you do that? Sometimes, the best question you can ask in a meeting is the question you already know the answer to. I know this sounds counter intuitive….why would I ask a question If I already know the answer? Well the answer is that others in that meeting may not know the answer. By asking that question, it helps you lay down the foundation and path for you to help guide others towards an end goal or idea. The big difference however is that by asking it as a question, instead of just telling people, is that you are encouraging the thought and dialogue to increases participation in the process! Those people answering or talking through your question have now been made a part of the process. Once they are involved in the process, they become more engaged and invested in the outcomes! As the team members start to answer the question, they start to discover the thoughts you were already thinking about. Hopefully they think of things you haven’t to help enhance it. They begin to build upon those ideas and move the ball forward. At the end of the day, as a leader it’s important to remember that the goal is to work down the path towards success together, and not whose idea it was! As you get more confident with this technique in your toolkit, it can be extremely effective at increasing engagement and growing your team members. Earlier in my career, I found this to be very effective in increasing my own impact in meetings, not only with my own team but also when engaging with more senior company leadership. The thought provoking, but on-point questions helped steer conversations toward solid ideas. It helped bridge the knowledge gap, especially if people in the meeting weren’t as familiar with the topics we were talking about. When you can increase your impact, performance, and engagement with your team or other leaders, people will take notice. |
About Shawn:My philosophy as an IT leader today is that I believe you must first and foremost be a business leader. It is my goal to be a strategic partner with the business to help it make money, save money, and be the absolute best in the industry at what we do. Having the technology competencies and experience is just your entry fee to sit at the table. Every day, I am bringing 20+ years of IT experience to the table in the areas such as:
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