Archive for February, 2009
Do you doodle?
Feb 27th
I’m always doodling in meetings, usually stars and cubes, and I’ve always argued that it helped me concentrate. Now a study appears to back up my claims!
Jackie Andrade, a psychologist at the University of Plymouth, says that rather than being frowned upon, doodling should be actively encouraged in meetings because it improves our ability to pay attention.
A study that compared how well people remembered details of a dull monologue found that those who doodled throughout retained more information than those who tried to sit and listen.
Jackie believes that when people are stuck in a boring meeting or listening to a tedious conversation, their minds naturally begin to wander and can turn to day dreaming.
“A simple task like doodling may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task,” she said. “In everyday life, doodling may be something we do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task, rather than being an unnecessary distraction that we should try to resist doing.”
Andrade asked 40 volunteers to listen to a boring two-and-a-half minute telephone message and jot down the names of people who had been invited to a party. Half of the participants were asked to colour in shapes on a piece of paper while they listened to relieve the boredom. The colouring task was chosen instead of more creative doodling because it was less likely to make people feel self-conscious.
After hearing the recorded message, the volunteers were given a memory test to see how much of it they could remember. The script of the message mentioned eight names of people who could make the party, three who could not and eight place names.
Writing in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, Andrade describes how doodlers scored better on writing down the names of people attending the party, and were also able to recall the names more accurately afterwards.
On average, the doodlers recalled 7.5 names and places – 29% more than the average of 5.8 remembered by the control group.
“If you are in a boring meeting, the best thing you can do is try to make it more interesting, but if that’s not going to happen, your best bet is to doodle,” she said..
“It’s not so much that doodling is good for your concentration, but that daydreaming is bad. If you are thinking about where you are going to go on holiday, that is probably going to be more cognitively demanding than a doodle.”
I think I need to send this to my old Boss!! 
Excellence in sport
Feb 24th
“You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.”
– Arthur Ashe
“Every game is an opportunity to measure yourself against your own potential.”
– Bud Wilkinson
The Sales Process
Feb 21st
A lot of people I’ve asked recently think the closing question (or asking for the order) is the most important part of the sales process. Do you think they are right?
Belief
Feb 19th
“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”
Sam Walton
How do you demonstrate your belief in others?
Coaching in the US
Feb 18th
Harvard Business report:
“Annual spending on executive coaching in the United States is estimated at $1 billion.”
“Business Coaching is needed today more than ever as a critical tool for organizational change…Change is essential for an organization to grow and adapt to today’s rapidly shifting marketplace…In changing from old hierarchical models to relational models for leading and influencing, businesses are creating coaching cultures that encourage organizational learning. Coaching has emerged as the best way to help individuals learn to think and work together more effectively.”- Georgetown University, Center for Professional Development.
“We’ve done lots of research over the past three years, and we’ve found that leaders who have the best coaching skills have better business results.” V.P. of Global Executive & Organizational Development at IBM.
Great quotes
Feb 17th
Saw some great quotes on Twitter today:
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” — Michael Jordan
“Motivation is not permanent, but neither is taking a bath — and I recommend that you do both daily.” Zig Ziglar
The importance of a coaching culture
Feb 16th
Coaching used to be thought of as a method to help correct underperformance. In the Business world of today, it’s used to support leaders, top performers and employees with potential in order to further develop individual capabilities.
Coaching is one of the most important leadership responsibilities. When leaders take the time to coach, people become more confident and motivated, which leads to higher performance and productivity. Leaders build relationships on trust and encouragement, and they need to support people so they can realise their full potential.
Various research studies have demonstrated that companies with a strong coaching culture develop much higher levels of employee engagement and performance.
Coaching helps people overcome obstacles to success. Carried out effectively the coaching process will help identify:
What your employees are really good at.
What is their potential, how good could they be?
What are their limitations and weaknesses?
Where do they want to go in their careers?
Using a professional coach to identify and change behaviors can prove invaluable.
Changing old habits and developing new ones takes time. It requires trust and honesty between the coach and the coachee. The process allows participants to discuss what is and isn’t working with their coach, and is conducted in complete confidence, with the coach holding them accountable and providing guidance and support when needed.
Encouragement and support
Feb 13th
I recently read an interview with Fernando Torres about his time to date at Liverpool. One of his comments about playing at Anfield and in front of the Kop really stood out for me:
“With just 45,000 fans there, that roar they give makes you think you have wings on your feet.”
Torres scored the winning goal for Spain in the final of the 2008 European Football Championship, and is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest strikers (if not THE best! ) He was made Club Captain at the age of 19 at his previous club, Atletico Madrid, so we are not talking about a guy you think might be lacking in confidence and self belief.
Which makes his comments about the roar at Anfield and the effect it has on him all the more interesting. He clearly believes that the encouragement and support he receives from the Liverpool fans helps him raise his game and produce that extra level of performance.
This is someone who is already at the top of their game, and they still feel that encouragement can help further improve them. Just how much of an impact can we have on our family, friends and colleagues if we vocalise our support and belief in them on a regular basis?
Too often we seem to operate on the basis of finding things wrong, telling people what they need to do better.
In the various roles we have in life, Manager, Mother, Father, Friend, Colleague etc, how often do we take time out to tell someone we care about, that we believe in them, that we value them?
It works for Torres, why can’t it work for them?
To finish on Torres, here’s one of my favourite ads:
What are the qualities of a good coach?
Feb 13th
Was looking at a site (squarewheels.com) today whose author was inviting people to send in some “stupidly simple” coaching ideas. The premise being that many coaching companies like to make a fairly simple process complicated in order to build value in their coaching models.
I find myself agreeing with much of this argument, yes it’s important to listen, yes it’s important to realise what people say often isn’t what they mean and so on; but isn’t the role of a coach to help people understand themselves and the options they have in life/work? We achieve this by asking questions. The more questions we ask, the more the coachee will have to think and come up with answers for themselves.
Is it really that simple?
Anyway, one of the posters came up with a list of 10 qualities that define a “good coach”:
Key descriptors of an IDEAL, SUCCESSFUL coach:
1. Self-Aware – knows their own style/approach well enough to filter their own responses and keep focused on their coachee’s needs.
2. A passion to help others learn, grow, and perform.
3. Competent (versus necessarily expert) on the work content.
4. Exercises and encourages a disciplined approach to the work.
5. Trustworthy – has integrity and can be trusted with the vulnerabilities of the coachee.
6. Motivator/Inspirer – can evoke commitment and energy in others.
7. Persistence – able to persist with questions that move the coachee to discover their own inherent capabilities.
8. Patience. Although closely related to persistence, patience is different in that the coach has to be willing to and has to create the necessary space to let the person being coached develop at his/her capabilities and motivational level.
9. Willing to take a ‘back seat’ on the coachee’s accomplishments.
10. Vision Driven- able to be guided by vision on two levels: the long-term view, based on an assessment of capabilities, of who the coachee can become and the short-term view of the right next steps/challenges to move them forward today.
What do you think?
Coaching takes up too much time!
Feb 13th
UK managers are too busy to coach, according to the latest research.
Nearly half of UK and Irish respondents to an international survey on the effectiveness of coaching say they find coaching employees too time consuming.
And nearly a third said their biggest coaching challenge was that they “didn’t have all the answers”.
Global consulting firm BlessingWhite conducted the survey among 2,041 employees and managers in 17 countries, exploring a number of business issues including the prevalence and effectiveness of coaching.
According to the findings set out in The Coaching Conundrum 2009, 42 per cent of managers in the UK and Ireland said coaching takes them too long and competes with other priorities. Thirty per cent said they didn’t coach because they “didn’t have all the answers”.
As a result, nearly two thirds (61 per cent) of employees in the UK and Ireland who took part in the survey said they received no coaching from their managers.
According to the research, these issues are global. Thirty two per cent of managers around the world cite lack of time as the major obstacle to effective coaching. In the US, the number was slightly lower at 29 per cent and in Asia the number was 38 per cent.
BlessingWhite’s UK MD Tom Barry said: “It can’t be forgotten that employees are a business’s greatest asset, even in the midst of the global financial crisis. Coaching is one of the most effective methods of aligning employees with organisational priorities. It can also boost performance, develop the leadership pipeline, engage employees and improve retention.
“Senior management must work to address this perception [that coaching takes too long], especially at a time of economic difficulty.”
Coaching could become time-consuming if managers got too involved in their subordinates’ work and felt as though they had to solve all the problems: “These managers don’t lack energy and commitment but they do lack focus and a clear understanding of what coaching is, and what it is not.”
Solution: Bring in an external coach to help solve the poblem!
