Leadership and coaching – who indeed learns during a training?
After many years without training myself the colleagues, I had the opportunity to work on a coaching training myself, I had spent a full Saturday reviewing old booklets, books, courses and the certification material of coach the coach. I had so much fun preparing the material and putting together exercises and fundamentals of coaching that I barely slept nights before the training, imaging how the reaction of the team would be – since I did put lots of love in the coaching workshop! Some points were so important for me to review, as the 4 abilities of a good coach: (From my training at http://www.coachinc.com/ccu/default.asp?s=1) 1) Contextual Listening Avoid deciding what you will say in response while the individual is still talking; Say what you heard to verify; Set aside your own agenda; avoid making quick assumptions! (“As you listen ask yourself, am I inhibiting, contaminating, or encouraging the other’s message?” – Sherod Miller) 2) Discovery Questioning Use neutral, non-judgmental language; know when to ask closed questions and when to ask open-ended questions; continue to listen and use silence effectively; ASK QUESTIONS TO HELP THE INDIVIDUAL DISCOVER HIS OR HER OWN ANSWERS. 3) Messaging Convert your message on a neutral one – with a neutral language. Establish an environment that supports a good coaching mood. Allow the time for the message to be fully heard and understood! Really have an intention to move the coachee forward, do not focus on being a good coach and telling the right thing at the right moment – if you really support your coachee with love you will know! 4) Acknowledge Focused feedback to acknowledge, celebrate or endorse positive contributions, learning and behaviors. Be genuine and timely. Reframe the situation with respect. Become comfortable in being acknowledged – teach others to accept it. Create an environment of being valued and valuing others. This was only one part and one point, which I got inspired by the corporate coaching clinic, which I took while being coached by Penny: http://www.corpalc.com/index.html My conclusion of a good coach, hence, a good leader is: The best coach does not have the answer, does not give the answer, but indeed is the one that “inspires” the coachee to find his / her own answers!!! …and this works also for our private life! I will share with you how the workshop went !
Leadership – is to serve others, be there for your team, colleagues!
Among many books, readings that I have found, this book had inspired me, and, of course, was given to me by my mother, who always looked for business books which could help my work! O Monge e o Executivo; in Portuguese – The Servant; in English – is a wonderful book about leadership, but the real one, the one that you really would like to live, mainly reflects the kind of boss that anyone of us would like to have – so, the one we should always try to be! The difference of this book is that it brings you to think over and see other sides of being a leader, and how much does the private life influence the professional life, indeed, what we are in our private life can not be different from the professional one… I loved to see that with this book one can be sure that being good, doing the best for the others and living a life to serve others is really the best leadership path one can choose! I was happy to understand that my attitude to help and to serve my team, my colleagues is not a lack of ambition or a competitive disadvantage, but more a very big competitive advantage!!! Here is the link to the book in different languages!!! In Portuguese: http://www.amazon.com/Monge-Executivo-História-Essência-Liderança/dp/8575421026 In English: http://www.amazon.com/Servant-Simple-Story-Essence-Leadership/dp/0761513698/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303436110&sr=1-1
Can competitive corporate world live together with spiritual, good hearted people???
For several years I have questioned myself how could one go up the corporate ladder and keep his/her values and still live a spiritual life keeping a good hearted attitude… When I started my yoga teacher course last year, here in Mexico, many people questioned me about my work, my position and my ambitions, it was almost like one had to choose between good and evil, good being yoga, spiritual life and evil being having ambition and working on a corporate world… Another time, I went to a retreat of yoga and raw food, in a small city close to Budapest, the lady who was the hostess was wonderful, lead us through an wonderful yoga class and taught us great dishes full of flavor and only raw food – this was all during the first day. …Then out of the blue, a conversation about “how bad corporations were and how bad pharmaceutical industries could be” came to our table – I was silent for a while, until I had to react, and me being me, I had started to talk about values and how I loved to work in the pharma company with which I was for the last 12 years, which at the time I was General Manager… Well, not well done, the environment became difficult and I finally left during the night, as I did not feel comfortable. These were some examples of episodes that took place in my life and they were not the only ones and for sure there will be many others to come. The difference is that I found my place in the corporate world and I found my style and attitude – I found peace with my way through the corporate world and I know now that I can live my values and spirituality working where I work and climbing whatever stairs I want there – and probably my attitude can bring “light” and comfort to many people who have the same doubts, conflicts! Many colleagues know that this has not been easy, and know my conflicts that appear time to time, but sooner than later I always come back to my heart, to my believes, to my spirituality – and everything always ends up better than started! Whenever, wherever, you work, whatever position you are at or are reaching for, you can always be good, have your heart where you want, and if you are consistent, strong on your believes, you will always end up being recognized and will be lead to a place where you will be helped and you will help others to go through the same wonderful path!!! …Yeessss, you can live your spiritual life and work in a corporation, indeed this is what the corporations are looking for!!!
Brand yourself – how to do it indeed!
As I have mentioned, I attended a Workshop some weeks ago, in which William Arruda taught us, around 200 women in New Jersey, how important to brand ourselves was! http://www.williamarruda.com/ Indeed I have to tell that all of it was too much for me, some Latin not so much “cyberfriendly”, but I scored nicely on the cathegory of branding yourself – meaning, I have a facebook account (very alive), I have a tweeter account (not at all alive), I have a way of living that can make me very characteristic… All was too much, since it told you to build your own website, blogs and do things, basically on the internet, which would be the most important for your own professional brand… …and now, here I am – yesterday I became “owner” of myself, I have bought my domain the larabezerra .com; .net; .com.br; and .org – much easier than I thought! To buy your domains go here: https://www.marcaria.com/ To do your own blog I have asked for my husband help (he had also helped me with the domain – Thanks Ré!), go here and help yourself!! https://www.wordpress.com/ Well, these were the 2 first steps for me to enter the “cyber world” and own myself on the web – hope this will help someone! Take care all of you, and happy Easter! Lara
