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Content of this Newsletter 0. Opinion 1. Leadership Coaching 2. Sales Management Coaching 3. Change Management Coaching 4. Career Coaching FURTHER NEWS * For upcoming seminars & events please visit: http://www.progressu.com.hk/ * For recent articles on Coaching please visit: http://www.progressu.com.hk/ * For recent articles on Leadership please visit: http://www.progressu.com.hk/ * For recent articles on Sales Management please visit: http://www.progressu.com.hk/ * For recent articles on Change Management please visit: http://www.progressu.com.hk/
Subscribe now to "Progress!" and get informed about the latest trends in Leadership, Change Management, Career Transition and Sales Management. To receive "Progress!", simply send a blank email to subscribe@progressu.com.hk
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Home > Resources > Progress! Newsletter > "Progress!" Issue No7 / August 04 "Progress!" (Progress-U Leadership & Coaching) - Issue No7 / August 2004 0. Opinion Dear Progress! Reader, Last week I held an evening seminar on the topic "What is First-Class
Leadership?" At the end of the 1.5 hour workshop, one of the
participants, a young executive in middle management, said, "You
gave so many examples of how leaders do not do a good job and how
they can improve. I continuously nodded in agreement because I experience
very similar situations in our company. I'm starting to wonder if
I'm working for the wrong company because its leadership is so poor."
1. Leadership Coaching
To read the full article, click here or scroll down.
2. Sales Management Coaching By Dave Stein, Author of How Winners Sell Not every salesperson has experienced a slump, but most have. If you have, you're not alone. You are possibly finding that you can't advance your deals, your pipeline has turned into a sieve, coaches in your accounts won't return your phone calls, your boss is all over you, your confidence is waning, your colleagues look at you with a bit of pity (or satisfaction), and your entire outlook on your job, your selling capabilities, even your self-worth may be in question... To read the full article, click here or scroll down.
3. Change Management Coaching During the course of a change process, executives often find that they take two steps back for every step they take toward their change goal. The reality is that most organizational change efforts fail. How does management plan a change process? They may create a task force to work out a strategy for implementing the desired organizational change. The task force then works out a plan with milestones and descriptions of responsibilities in a given time frame. New organizational and process charts are outlined and a number of people are repositioned. Further, everybody involved is expected to follow the new procedures and regulations. Overall, the change process is projected to be linear. To read the full article, click here or scroll down.
4. Career Coaching
You may be wondering how this statement of the famous German writer Friedrich von Schiller is related to career coaching. What is an 'evil deed' in your career? It is actually quite simple: anything that considerably annoys or disturbs your employer, i.e. your boss. It does not really matter whether you are right or wrong, that may matter for you at that moment but it does not to your boss, if she or he is not convinced and is still annoyed. Of course, you could tell yourself that you don't care and that you can leave your job if things get too bad. However, be prepared for the possible consequences. To read the full article, click here or scroll down.
Complete Articles Dear Progress! Reader, Last week I held an evening seminar on the topic "What is First-Class Leadership?" At the end of the 1.5 hour workshop, one of the participants, a young executive in middle management, said, "You gave so many examples of how leaders do not do a good job and how they can improve. I continuously nodded in agreement because I experience very similar situations in our company. I'm starting to wonder if I'm working for the wrong company because its leadership is so poor." I told her that she should not worry too much, that her situation is probably nothing out of the ordinary, and that indeed one can find poor leadership in almost every big organization. In fact, I have never come across a large organization where excellent leadership exists on all levels and in all departments. One may wonder how companies can be successful with so little good leadership and so much chaos going on. Of course, the chances for a company to be successful are greater when there are more good leaders. Why don't we have more good leaders? Although I don't believe that
good leadership requires great talent, natural leadership skills always
help. However, most leadership skills can be learned. It amazes me
that our regular education - from kindergarten to university level
- hardly includes leadership education and training. As such, the
scarceness of good leaders should come as no surprise. Yours sincerely, Charlie Lang
1. Leadership Coaching
It happens all the time: a department or division needs a new boss. Depending on the size of the company, one of three possibilities is usually suggested:
One would think that option 1 is often favored because the current team members already know the business and tasks very well, i.e., they could probably perform well immediately. Further, the other team members would be motivated if they see that it is possible to be promoted in their group. And finally, it is usually considerably easier to manage the smooth transition of the new employee filling up the new boss' previous position because the new boss can assist the new employee during the start-up phase. Unfortunately, option 1 is rarely chosen and if it is, the promotion doesn't necessarily have successful results. Why is that so? The people that decide who makes it to the top want to be convinced that the candidate displays sufficient leadership skills before awarding him with a greater responsibility. The team members in question may lack these skills and therefore are not considered. Technically driven companies tend to promote their best engineers (usually a specialist in his field) without first checking whether these engineers have good leadership potential. Unfortunately, a lot of technical specialists have little leadership talent. The new Executive Leadership Seminar developed by Progress-U Ltd. helps managers on all levels to improve and sharpen the top 10 essential leadership skills, including giving clear direction, open communication, coaching and supporting people, among others. The full-day training workshop "Leadership Skills for Managers on Their Way to the Top" organized by Progress-U Ltd. will be held on August 14, 2004.
For more information related to Progress-U Leadership Coaching please visit http://www.progressu.com.hk/leadership.htm.
2. Sales Management Coaching By Dave Stein, Author of How Winners Sell Not every salesperson has experienced a slump, but most have. If you have, you're not alone. You are possibly finding that you can't advance your deals, your pipeline has turned into a sieve, coaches in your accounts won't return your phone calls, your boss is all over you, your confidence is waning, your colleagues look at you with a bit of pity (or satisfaction), and your entire outlook on your job, your selling capabilities, even your self-worth may be in question... First let me say that I've seen many top performers, at one time or another, fall into a sales slump. I've been in a few myself over the years. Some last longer than others, but be assured that none last forever--unless you literally give up. It's up to you to accept responsibility for getting yourself out of the slump. You certainly should ask for and expect support and encouragement from management and your colleagues, but no one can get you out of your slump. You have to do it yourself. It takes time, effort and organization. If you or someone who works for you is experiencing a slump, I'd like to suggest a few things to thing about and some actions to take to turn things around: Assess: The first thing to do is to admit to yourself that you are, in fact, in a slump. This isn't easy. I find that many sales pros in this situation avoid thinking in those terms. Once you've said to yourself, "I'm in a slump," evaluate your situation. Objectivity is critical in doing that effectively. When I work one-on-one with a good salesperson who is in a slump, I ascertain whether the root cause is a direct result of actions the salesperson took (or didn't take), or the cause is systemic. For example, if the person hasn't prospected in a year, brought in no business during the last two quarters and is sitting with no qualified leads to pursue, at 50% of quota, that's one problem. On the other hand, if they've done all the "right things," but their company announced they were filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and no one wants to meet with, not to mention buy from that sales rep right now, that's another situation entirely. (An argument could be made that the sales person should have seen this coming and moved on to a new job...) By the way, I'm not a believer in luck having much to do with successful selling. Some good timing here, a bad break there, sure, but I've seen winners "create" their own luck too many times to be spiritual about it. "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson Go for Little Wins: Once you've assessed the situation, you need to go for some little wins--achievable mini-goals--that will get you moving in the right direction. The message here is: take control. We know the "big win" is recovering and overdelivering on quota. But that may be too daunting a challenge when you're in the midst of that slump. Little wins contribute to finding your footing again in areas where you might have lost your confidence, or perhaps need to beef up on some skills. Here are some examples: To read the full article, visit http://www.progressu.com.hk/SalesSlump.htm NOTE: Progress-U offers the Innovative Sales Management Program as a tailor-made in-house package consisting of an initial 2-day training combined with executive assessments and follow-up coaching of the sales management. If you are interested in a presentation of this program, please contact us at innovative-sales-program@progressu.com.hk or visit http://www.progressu.com.hk/SalesDP.htm
3. Change Management Coaching During the course of a change process, executives often find that they take two steps back for every step they take toward their change goal. The reality is that most organizational change efforts fail. How does management plan a change process? They may create a task force to work out a strategy for implementing the desired organizational change. The task force then works out a plan with milestones and descriptions of responsibilities in a given time frame. New organizational and process charts are outlined and a number of people are repositioned. Further, everybody involved is expected to follow the new procedures and regulations. Overall, the change process is projected to be linear. But the implementation of change is really a nonlinear process, a big part of which is unpredictable. This is equally true for evolutionary and revolutionary change. That is why good leadership in times of considerable change is vital. Good leadership does not only help develop the strategic planning aspects of organizational change but also organizes coaching in dealing with unanticipated consequences and personal concerns of everyone involved. Change success can be achieved with a professional coach-the-coach program for all leaders involved in the change process. In the course of such a program, the following issues can be addressed:
About the psychology of [organizational] change Psychologist Albert Bandura calls the judgment an individual makes about his or her ability to execute a particular behavior 'self-efficacy'. He enumerates four ways individuals acquire self-efficacy from a particular task: through performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, social persuasion and positive emotional states. Change leaders can take advantage of this knowledge to create the necessary experiences and thus reduce employee anxiety and boost confidence. This can be achieved by:
Savvy change leaders realize that employees' reactions to change
will be significantly affected by their emotional reactions. These
emotional reactions are greatly affected by past and current practices
and policies within the organization, i.e., the culture of the organization.
It is possible to reduce excessive tension arising from change initiatives
by providing sufficient, consistent and accurate information endorsed
by a trusted and credible member of senior management.
NOTE: Progress-U Ltd. offers the Win Through Change! Program to assist corporations in their change process. For details visit http://www.progressu.com.hk/ChangeMP.htm
4. Career Coaching
You may be wondering how this statement of the famous German writer Friedrich von Schiller is related to career coaching. What is an 'evil deed' in your career? It is actually quite simple: anything that considerably annoys or disturbs your employer, i.e. your boss. It does not really matter whether you are right or wrong, that may matter for you at that moment but it does not to your boss, if she or he is not convinced and is still annoyed. Of course, you could tell yourself that you don't care and that you can leave your job if things get too bad. However, be prepared for the possible consequences. For example, imagine you just applied for a very interesting job as Director of Finance in a well-known bank. Everything seems to go well, you pass successfully the first interview and wait for the next step. Your potential future boss remembers that he recently met the managing director of the finance institute you were working for a few years ago. Of course, what he will do is to call up this person and ask whether he knows you. Needless to say, your chances of getting the job are close to nil if the feedback from this previous boss is negative. Remember, in business people easily believe negative messages, while positive ones may still need to be proven. If you want to achieve a seamlessly positive career, your chances are considerably better when you at least please - if not wow - your bosses and make them believe that you are a very valuable employee. This sounds pretty basic, so why is it forgotten so often? In my opinion, it is a matter of ego. If you have a big ego and your boss has a big ego (most bosses do!) then it is easy to imagine how things can go wrong. I don't say you should say yes to everything your bosses say. However, I highly recommend that you respect their authority (regardless of your belief in their capability) and that you accept their point of view when you fail to convince them of your's. And if you don't like that, work hard and be smart until you become a boss yourself. For more information related to Progress-U's Career Coaching Programs, please visit http://www.progressu.com.hk/Career.htm.
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