CEO coaching … leaders who lifelong learn

Posted 8 February, 2012 by Jennifer

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard it asked by corporate leaders from directors, to board members to CEOs ”but why would I need coaching … I’m doing everything right”. To which I reply “you wouldn’t be at your level of success if you weren’t doing everything right. And I work with achievers not because there are issues, but because there’s always unreleased potential”.

A founding father of the US, Benjamin Franklin said, “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

A noted polymath was old Franklin which means he had a great deal of knowledge about a wide range of topics. He was known for his considered opinion, his wisdom, his diplomacy and his natural ability to lead and to inspire others. I’m guessing he meant it then, when he also said, “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”

In metaphysics there’s a law called ‘the law of perpetual transmutation’. It means that all things physical and non-physical exist in a constantly state of change – expanding, reducing, evolving. There’s never nothing happening. Nothing stays the same. The universe’s default is transformation.

The most successful leaders, managing directors, CEOs on the planet know all about this law. You’d never hear them say ‘I’m complete; all the things on my list are ticked; we’ve reached every goal I ever had for myself, the company, the customers, the systems, the employees and the products & services… so, yeah. We’re done’.

Because, too right they’d be ‘done’! Done gathering new ideas; done sensing what’s next for the marketplace; done navigating the company’s best talent towards unearthing new opportunities.

There IS no ‘done’ in the life-cycle of successful leaders within progressive organisations. Personal growth & progress = greater team achievements = product & service improvements = ongoing business success; just like Franklin said it would.

Every individual leader is called to be creative and to lead and expand themselves and their business in a way that’s unique to them. There are no co-incidences in any man or woman’s rise to the helm of a notable corporate company to pioneer a new chapter for its tribe. Directors who actively develop integrity, respect, wisdom, a sense of themselves, and a healthy relationship with risk will thrive.

Lifelong learning is a commitment. There are no right or wrong ways to go about it – study a formal course, hire an executive coach, read, listen, watch, blog, join a mastermind – your style, your choice. But it is a conscious decision to walk this path – you cannot inherit leadership success. The results show in each of us to a depth and effectiveness equal to the hours invested in developing the craft.

I leave you with an Irish saying which is up there, in my opinion, with the wisdom of Mr Franklin: “You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.”

Jennifer Broadley is one of the UK's leading executive coaches. She works with corporate leaders, business directors and successful entrepreneurs. She specialises in CEO coaching, prosperity coaching and providing the most cutting-edge and intuitive leadership and personal success programs in the UK. Jennifer is passionate about the ongoing self improvement of the world's future business leaders – the way-showers for our precious next generation. She coaches, speaks, writes and runs workshops on 'The 7 Steps to Personal & Professional Freedom'®. You can buy her book of the same name from www.Amazon.co.uk You can call, email or message Jennifer from www.JenniferBroadley.com.

‘I Wanted to Design; Now I Lead’ …

Posted 11 January, 2012 by Jennifer

What happens when the thing you loved doing the most – the reason you stepped up for your chosen career – is no longer present in your job?

I’ve spoken to directors who were designers, managers who were mechanics, and leaders who were lifeguards – all of whom have progressed far enough in their careers that the activity that made them stand out in the first place has been downsized to almost zero and replaced with leadership responsibilities primarily comprising of strategy and motivating others.

It’s not entirely a bad thing. And it could easily be called ‘natural career progression’. If it describes you then know this; stepping forward into leadership is best when:

you’re still involved with people who are doing the thing you loved – and you can inspire them
the knowledge you acquired developing the skill-set of your passion can continue to be shared
by doing so, you discover something more about yourself that you couldn’t have aspired to at the outset of your career journey

I don’t know any career newbees who when asked ‘what would you like to be’, they answer ‘A leader’, ‘A CEO’, or ‘A board director’. Instead they aspire to be architects, clothes designers, marine engineers, environmental scientist, flower importers – you know? Things that directly link them to the product or service they want to offer to others.

My question is this: if leadership is naturally what we all progress towards then how come we don’t:

talk about it to our students and new starts to prepare them for going beyond their ‘first stage’ career
equip our directors with a full leadership skill set in as much detail as we would a doctor
support leaders constantly so that in their rising to the top of our organisations, they continue to exude the creativity and innovation that we know they inherently own because we saw it displayed in their ‘stage 1′ passion

When a company’s leaders are disciplined and successful, but not 100% passionate about the role they’ve progressed to, not only does the organisation lose their return on investment in that person, they also haemorrhage possibility, opportunity and competitive edge.

No one would drive a car with a leak in the petrol tank – it limits the speed and potential of you getting from A to B. So why do we accept a reduced performance in our most valued and invested-in employees?

To get way out in front in 2012, here’s where I believe the treasure lies:

FOCUS on your key 10-20 performers and, especially if they’re outstanding, invest further in them (coaching, mentoring, enabling)
CREATE (or access) a platform which brings together leaders from different, non-competitive disciplines and companies to share stories that inspire and prompt radical, new thinking and stimulating possibilities (the TED.com theory: ideas worth sharing)
TALK! If you’re an HR Director or Talent Manager, get out there and do the rounds with your board members and fellow directors – find out the development they’d most value.
TALK! If you’re a director or leader in your business, go and find your Learning & Development contact and ask them what the possibilities are for you to actively evolve yourself and your results this year
TALK! If you’re from an organisation where you know there’s a valuable conversation to be had with a counterpart in a non-competitive organisations, pick up the phone, call him/her and get the revolution started.

The Best Success Coach – You!

Posted 30 May, 2011 by Jennifer

What does it take for anyone to be the best at anything? And does being labelled the best success coach in the UK take different traits to being the best runner in the Olympics, the best artist of the Turner Prize, the best actress at the Oscars or the best leader in your organisation?

The word ‘best’ is often used to compare one person, talent or event to another. In this sense, I would steer clear of using it unless it’s in a context of comparing me with myself. Wayne Dyer once said that ‘true nobility is not about being better than anyone else, it’s about being better than I used to be’. With that in mind, here’s some of what I think it takes to bring out the best in who you’re striving to become:

A Compelling Vision: when it’s cold and wet and you have to get up for training, when you fingers are blistered from strumming those guitar chords a thousand times over, when you’ve got to dig deep to spend another day of business waiting for the breakthrough, a compelling vision will re-ignite passion and motivation to underpin the drive to keep going.

My vision is defined in writing, on a vision board and in a series of mind movies – so that however I’m reminded, it’s inspiring.

Personal Responsibility: no one became the best in their field by looking outside of themselves for the answers, by comparing themselves to another or for finding someone to blame. Each person has a definition of success that’s as unique to them as is their fingerprint and a route to achieving that success that navigates through unchartered territory.

I regularly shake off the echos of ‘if you could write like her …’; ‘if you had money like him …’; ‘if you were as smart as …’. I’m 100% responsible for the thoughts I think, the choices i make and for how big I choose to show up in the world.

Increasing Self Awareness: What other’s can observe about you will only ever be a tiny piece of the jigsaw. When you develop the skill of tuning in to the physical signs, the intellectual promptings, the emotional resonances, and the spiritual meaning of the vision you’re choosing, then you can fully expand into the truth about your purpose. Only then can you stretch for the heights you secretly dream about. No limits remember?

For me, self awareness and self development are two circles with a venn-diagram-like cross over point. My personal aim is to expand that central part to a point where awareness and development are entirly overlapping and function with syncronicity at all times … a work in progress.

I’ve worked with clients whose compelling vision, once defined clearly and courageously, has been enough to change their thoughts, their feelings, and their ability to take inspired action. Subsequently results begin to appear, sometimes so significantly and speedily that you wonder where they could have been hiding for all this time.

So, is it possible for you to be the best at whatever it is you expect for yourself? With vision, responsibility and awareness I say ‘yes’. The most important thing as I always say, is to go inside for your answers – to take some quiet time, shut your eyes, focus your mind towards your heart and let the best you step forward!