Rising Stars Coach

If you are interested in professional development, here is a direct link to some of my favorite leadership and coaching books on Amazon, you can also find this list on the Rising Stars Resource page.

 Thank you Matt for putting this together.

Are your benefits positively impacting your bottom line? As the stock market continues to zig and zag, employers of all sizes are looking for offerings that appeal to employees and also provide a positive benefit to the organization. Can an offering increase engagement? Promote good health? Keep professionals working longer? These types of benefits are on the rise, while others are losing favor.

 Paying people or offering an incentive for good health is a strategy that Banner Health and the Arizona Department of Health Services are trying. In previous years if an employee was willing to have their biometrics taken, including weight, blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol, etc. they would receive a $50 gift card. The employee receives a 15 minute counseling session to discuss their results and how they can have a healthier lifestyle. Beginning in 2012, if an employee participates in the biometrics program in 2011, he or she will receive $10 per month off the price of their health insurance. Healthy employees reduce insurance costs, short term disability and absenteeism, creating a more productive working environment. Employees are happy about the cost savings and about receiving ideas that can improve their overall health.

 According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, benefits that increased from 2008-9 to 2009-10 are: the ability to work at home, lactation rooms, legal counseling and subsidized off site fitness. Tuition reimbursement is still very popular, but has been scaled back a bit.

 What is your company doing? Have you surveyed your employees to determine which perks are most important to them?

Great article in today’s Wall Street Journal titled “Don’t Dismiss Office Politics – Teach It.” Jeffrey Pfeffer did a nice job articulating why it’s important for leaders to know how to use their political skills for their career and company. Here’s a brief summary of the key points. When a talented leader can combine knowledge of what the company needs with an ability to get things done, everyone wins. Poor political skills can cause executive turnover which is expensive and time consuming.

When you call it “relationship building” or “socializing an idea” instead of “being political” it may sound better, yet the results are the same. By building networks with key people who can provide you with useful information, your career progresses and your department and company benefit.

Some leaders haven’t learned that it’s more strategic to pick your battles and not try to win them all. Pfeffer suggests that “When people appear to be struggling in their roles, there are several ways the company can help save its investment in their careers. Executive coaching is a growing and often helpful process. A good executive coach can get people to stop their own self-defeating behaviors.

Coaches also can help people re-examine their values, and perhaps figure out whether they would rather be able to say, ‘I told you so,’ or acquire influence by being useful to those in power.”

Great organizations can teach power skills and seasoned executives can help grow leaders by mentoring them to understand who to build relationships with and how work effectively gets done in the organization.

For the full article to go http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904060604576570574190457198.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

How Can a Leadership Coach Help You Grow Your Business by Rick Pontz, from the Oct. 2011 issue of Smarty Pontz, Lawn and Garden News You Can Use 

As much as we don’t want to admit it, we all have our limitations. We excel in some areas and may have weaknesses in other areas that are important to running our businesses or doing our jobs.

Our flaws are usually magnified when we ignore them. Managing a business and making decisions without recognizing our limitations can cause us to be less effective than we would like. We get calls frequently from lawn & garden companies who have the above symptoms.

We usually recommend a qualified Leadership Coach that can help you identify your limitations and create strategies to overcome them. A Leadership Coach will work with you to understand how to identify and develop your strengths to improve your effectiveness. You work with your coach in a confidential relationship to achieve your unique goals.

For many years now, large companies have been bringing in Leadership coaches for their key leaders, middle managers and rising stars to help improve their performance, increase their productivity, build their leadership skills, and manage their teams. The value of using Leadership Coaches is spreading from large companies to medium and small companies to help eliminate whatever may be holding you back from achieving your full measure of success. ROI for using a coach ranges in the area of 500-600%.

Now, even savvy, entrepreneurial lawn and garden companies are using coaches to help their key people get very clear on what they want to accomplish and how they will achieve the desired results. We have found certified Leadership coaches can work with you or any senior or midlevel leader. Key areas of focus in these coaching relationships include:

• Understanding what’s holding you back
• Setting clear, compelling goals to overcome obstacles and achieve success
• Developing strategies and action plans
• Confidential sounding board to help you execute while providing the support and accountability you need to bring out the very best in you and your employees.

According to a 2011 survey by the International Coach Federation the top 3 areas of concern addressed during coaching engagements were personal growth (37%), interpersonal relationships (33%) and self esteem/confidence (27%).

Chances are at your company there are probably many reasons that a leadership coach may be valuable to you or a key manager, including but not limited to the following:

• There is a gap in knowledge, skills, confidence, or resources
• There is a big project you are struggling with and it is time sensitive
• There is a desire to accelerate results
• There is a lack of clarity, and there are choices you need to make.
• There is something at stake (a challenge, a stretch goal or opportunity), and it is urgent, compelling or exciting or all of the above 
• Work and life are out of balance, and this is creating unwanted consequences
• Improving a leadership style that is ineffective or is not supporting the achievement of your goals.

If any of the above symptoms seem familiar to you, and you want a different outcome, it may be time for you to do what the big companies do, talk to a Leadership Coach.For maximum effectiveness, you will want to be sure the coach you are working with is a professional who understands your type of business and is a certified coach. According to a 2009 survey by the International Coach Federation, 77% of respondents to the Global Coaching Client Study considered it important that their coach has a certification/credential.We happen to know a great Leadership Coach who has already helped many people in our industry. Please contact Joanne Schlosser, Associate Certified Coach at Rising Stars Leadership Coaching, www.RisingStarsCoach.com, email or 480-840-6024 for a free, confidential 30 minute introductory conversation. Tell her I sent you.

I’m excited to have been invited to present at the Phoenix ICF chapter meeting on Oct. 12th. Was supposed to present in January with Marcia Reynolds when our flight back from Costa Rica was cancelled and I wasn’t able to get back in time.

We are all trying to be more “green” in various ways.  One small thing I’ve begun doing is instead of spitting mouthwash into the sink, I use the toilet. The advantages are 1. you don’t waste water rinsing your sink and 2. your toilet smells fresher. Try it.

Labor Day usually means, back to school and back to work. As kids head to the classrooms, what are you learning to grow your career? Now is a good time to think about how to sharpen your leadership skills. The most effective leaders continue to learn and develop throughout their career.

When is the last time you engaged in personal or professional development? How have you stretched yourself? How you have encouraged your employees to bring their best game to work? How are you growing your business?

Whether you are a leader of a small team or large organization, there is always room to improve your performance. Some managers excel at people skills, developing great relationships, yet find it hard to hold people accountable, so results suffer. Others are quite task focused, at the expense of the team’s morale. These managers often have higher turnover which costs your company significantly in recruiting, hiring, and bringing new employees up to speed. How do you find the sweet spot where you are successful in your people and task skills? Research shows that employees don’t leave jobs, they leave their bosses. Keep your best people, by being the best leader you can be.

Are you interested in coaching for yourself or a direct report? Or are you more interested in how you can bring coaching and a coaching culture to your organization? A recent article by the Institute of Leadership and Management titled Creating a Coaching Culture  (May 2011) provides a wealth of terrific information.   They stated that 90% of organizations with 2,001 or more employees have used coaching in the past five years, compared to 81% for those with 501 to 2,000 employees. Smaller organizations use coaching to a lesser extent.

There is a often the tendency to associate coaching with the talent pipeline – it is predominantly directed at senior leaders and directors (85%) and middle management(85%). The most common reasons for coaching are management and leadership development.  External coaches are used most often for senior leaders. Internal coaches are utilized for middle managers and lower level supevisors and employees.

There was clear consensus on  coaching as a development tool  that assists both the organization (95%) and the individual (96%). The study was conducted with 250 large organizations in the United Kingdom. I encourage you to read the article and get a better sense of why so many companies are using coaching as the leadership development tool of choice.

Did you see today’s Wall Street Journal article titled, “Coaching Urged for Women: Inadequate Career Development Holds Back Female Executives” according to a McKinsey and Co report that will be released tomorrow. The article addresses the issue that we as executive coaches see frequently, leaders  make it to a certain level in the organization and then don’t receive the leadership development opportunities and skills needed to be successful at the next level. This is fairly consistent whether you are looking at the Fortune 500 companies where only 11 are led by females to medium size firms in most industries. It’s no surprise to see that many women are giving up on the corporate ladder to start their own businesses. To read the full article click here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704530204576237203974840800.html?mod=rss_management